FRST 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Brood Parasite, Cowbird, Parasitism
Document Summary
Identifying habitat for the conservation of rare or declining species. Habitat provides life"s requirements: food, water, other physiological requirements, shelter: nest or den sites, anti-predator and thermal cover, space for reproduction, offspring development and dispersal, allowing for range of behaviors including migration. Identifying limits on populations is a central goal in ecology, evolution and conservation: but many species of interest are, rare, long-lived, cryptic, otherwise hard to study, alternative: study representative species in details. Demographic rates: production of young, parasitism: nests with one or more than one cowbird egg, nest depredation, local survival of adults and young from year to year. Wednesday 31 october 2012: induce females to abandon and re-nest elsewhere, net affect: modest reduction in reproduction rates, cowbirds also destroy eggs and nestlings: depredation by cowbirds. Cowbird distribution: predictors, distance to urban areas, land use, distance to agriculture, presence of livestock.
