Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders
Surgically implanted satellite transmitters have been widely used in studies of avian ecology, yet little is known about their potential impacts on birds. We implanted satellite transmitters with percutaneous antennae (approx. 50 g) in 17 female common eiders (Somateria mollissima) at a breeding col...
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The Wildlife Society
2011
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 |
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ftbioone:10.1002/jwmg.220 2024-06-02T08:02:32+00:00 Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps world 2011-09-01 text/HTML https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 en eng The Wildlife Society doi:10.1002/jwmg.220 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 Text 2011 ftbioone https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 2024-05-07T00:47:03Z Surgically implanted satellite transmitters have been widely used in studies of avian ecology, yet little is known about their potential impacts on birds. We implanted satellite transmitters with percutaneous antennae (approx. 50 g) in 17 female common eiders (Somateria mollissima) at a breeding colony in Arctic Canada. Among females implanted during incubation, 11 of 12 nests were abandoned within 1 week of being radioed. We observed no differences in the proportion of time that implanted female eiders allocated to basic behaviors. Radioed birds were more likely to pick or preen their abdominal (site of surgical incision) and posterior—dorsal (site of antenna exit) regions than unmarked females, although these behaviors were rare (approx. 0.3% of total time budget). Three of 10 females re-observed had a pronounced limp following surgery, but we observed no walking difficulties among these females in subsequent seasons, and we observed some implanted eiders nesting in subsequent years. Mark—resighting models suggest eiders with transmitters had lower apparent survival the year after implantation (67.0%; 85% CI: 47.8–81.9%) than did color-banded eiders (87.5%, 85% CI: 82.5–91.2%), but there was no model support for a survival difference in subsequent years. We conclude that transmitter implantation in common eiders leads to short-term changes in behavior and a decline in first year survival. We encourage researchers to collect similar data on their study subjects where possible and use it to determine the degree to which data are representative of the greater population. Text Arctic Somateria mollissima BioOne Online Journals Arctic Canada The Journal of Wildlife Management 75 7 1553 1557 |
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Surgically implanted satellite transmitters have been widely used in studies of avian ecology, yet little is known about their potential impacts on birds. We implanted satellite transmitters with percutaneous antennae (approx. 50 g) in 17 female common eiders (Somateria mollissima) at a breeding colony in Arctic Canada. Among females implanted during incubation, 11 of 12 nests were abandoned within 1 week of being radioed. We observed no differences in the proportion of time that implanted female eiders allocated to basic behaviors. Radioed birds were more likely to pick or preen their abdominal (site of surgical incision) and posterior—dorsal (site of antenna exit) regions than unmarked females, although these behaviors were rare (approx. 0.3% of total time budget). Three of 10 females re-observed had a pronounced limp following surgery, but we observed no walking difficulties among these females in subsequent seasons, and we observed some implanted eiders nesting in subsequent years. Mark—resighting models suggest eiders with transmitters had lower apparent survival the year after implantation (67.0%; 85% CI: 47.8–81.9%) than did color-banded eiders (87.5%, 85% CI: 82.5–91.2%), but there was no model support for a survival difference in subsequent years. We conclude that transmitter implantation in common eiders leads to short-term changes in behavior and a decline in first year survival. We encourage researchers to collect similar data on their study subjects where possible and use it to determine the degree to which data are representative of the greater population. |
author2 |
Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps |
format |
Text |
author |
Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps |
spellingShingle |
Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
author_facet |
Peter L. F. Fast Marie Fast Anders Mosbech Christian Sonne H. Grant Gilchrist Sébastien Descamps |
author_sort |
Peter L. F. Fast |
title |
Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
title_short |
Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
title_full |
Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
title_fullStr |
Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of Implanted Satellite Transmitters on Behavior and Survival of Female Common Eiders |
title_sort |
effects of implanted satellite transmitters on behavior and survival of female common eiders |
publisher |
The Wildlife Society |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 |
op_coverage |
world |
geographic |
Arctic Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada |
genre |
Arctic Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Arctic Somateria mollissima |
op_source |
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 |
op_relation |
doi:10.1002/jwmg.220 |
op_rights |
All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.220 |
container_title |
The Journal of Wildlife Management |
container_volume |
75 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
1553 |
op_container_end_page |
1557 |
_version_ |
1800747016212447232 |