Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats
Abstract Background Animals need to adjust their vigilance strategies when foraging between physically contrasting vegetated and non-vegetated habitats. Vegetated habitats may pose a greater risk for some if vegetation characteristics function as a visual obstruction but benefit others if they serve...
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2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 2023-05-15T16:08:32+02:00 Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats Zhang, Jing Zhang, Hang Liu, Yu Lloyd, Huw Li, Jianqiang Zhang, Zhengwang Li, Donglai National Natural Science Foundation of China non-profit Foundation of Marine Environment and Ecological Conservation of CNOOC Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province National Key Research and Development Program of China 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Avian Research volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2053-7166 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 2022-01-04T08:41:28Z Abstract Background Animals need to adjust their vigilance strategies when foraging between physically contrasting vegetated and non-vegetated habitats. Vegetated habitats may pose a greater risk for some if vegetation characteristics function as a visual obstruction but benefit others if they serve as protective shelter. Variation in group size, presence of similar species, along with variation in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance can also influence vigilance investment. Methods In this study, we quantified the vigilance behaviour of two large-bodied, sympatric migratory curlew species—Far Eastern Curlew ( Numenius madagascariensis ) and Eurasian Curlew ( N. arquata )—in vegetated Suaeda salsa saltmarsh and non-vegetated mudflat habitat in Liaohekou National Nature Reserve, China. We used linear mixed models to examine the effects of habitat type, season, tide time, flock size (conspecific and heterospecific), and human disturbance on curlew vigilance investment. Results Both species spent a higher percentage of time under visual obstruction in S. salsa habitat compared to mudflat habitat but in response, only Far Eastern Curlew increased their percentage of vigilance time, indicating that visual obstruction in this habitat is only a concern for this species. There was no evidence that S. salsa vegetation served as a form of cryptic background colouration since neither species decreased their vigilance effect in S. salsa habitat in spring compared to the autumn migration season. The effect of curlew social environment (i.e. flock size) was habitat dependent since percentage of vigilance time by curlews in saltmarsh increased with both the number of individual curlews and number of other birds present, but not in mudflat habitat. Conclusions We conclude that both migratory curlew species exhibit a flexible vigilance adjustment strategy to cope with the different environmental and social conditions of adjacent and sharply contrasting coastal habitats, and that the trade-off between the risks of foraging and the abundance of prey may be a relatively common phenomenon in these and other shorebird populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Eurasian Curlew Springer Nature (via Crossref) Avian Research 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Zhang, Jing Zhang, Hang Liu, Yu Lloyd, Huw Li, Jianqiang Zhang, Zhengwang Li, Donglai Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Abstract Background Animals need to adjust their vigilance strategies when foraging between physically contrasting vegetated and non-vegetated habitats. Vegetated habitats may pose a greater risk for some if vegetation characteristics function as a visual obstruction but benefit others if they serve as protective shelter. Variation in group size, presence of similar species, along with variation in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance can also influence vigilance investment. Methods In this study, we quantified the vigilance behaviour of two large-bodied, sympatric migratory curlew species—Far Eastern Curlew ( Numenius madagascariensis ) and Eurasian Curlew ( N. arquata )—in vegetated Suaeda salsa saltmarsh and non-vegetated mudflat habitat in Liaohekou National Nature Reserve, China. We used linear mixed models to examine the effects of habitat type, season, tide time, flock size (conspecific and heterospecific), and human disturbance on curlew vigilance investment. Results Both species spent a higher percentage of time under visual obstruction in S. salsa habitat compared to mudflat habitat but in response, only Far Eastern Curlew increased their percentage of vigilance time, indicating that visual obstruction in this habitat is only a concern for this species. There was no evidence that S. salsa vegetation served as a form of cryptic background colouration since neither species decreased their vigilance effect in S. salsa habitat in spring compared to the autumn migration season. The effect of curlew social environment (i.e. flock size) was habitat dependent since percentage of vigilance time by curlews in saltmarsh increased with both the number of individual curlews and number of other birds present, but not in mudflat habitat. Conclusions We conclude that both migratory curlew species exhibit a flexible vigilance adjustment strategy to cope with the different environmental and social conditions of adjacent and sharply contrasting coastal habitats, and that the trade-off between the risks of foraging and the abundance of prey may be a relatively common phenomenon in these and other shorebird populations. |
author2 |
National Natural Science Foundation of China non-profit Foundation of Marine Environment and Ecological Conservation of CNOOC Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province National Key Research and Development Program of China |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zhang, Jing Zhang, Hang Liu, Yu Lloyd, Huw Li, Jianqiang Zhang, Zhengwang Li, Donglai |
author_facet |
Zhang, Jing Zhang, Hang Liu, Yu Lloyd, Huw Li, Jianqiang Zhang, Zhengwang Li, Donglai |
author_sort |
Zhang, Jing |
title |
Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
title_short |
Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
title_full |
Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
title_fullStr |
Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
title_sort |
saltmarsh vegetation and social environment influence flexible seasonal vigilance strategies for two sympatric migratory curlew species in adjacent coastal habitats |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5/fulltext.html |
genre |
Eurasian Curlew |
genre_facet |
Eurasian Curlew |
op_source |
Avian Research volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2053-7166 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00274-5 |
container_title |
Avian Research |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766404577327841280 |