Life history tradeoffs, incubation behavior and conservation of horned larks (Eremophila alpestris) ...

• Main Author: Camfield, Alaine Francine
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2008
• Subjects: Canada; British Columbia; Eremophila alpestris
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0066698; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0066698

Nearly 30 percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface is mountainous and despite representing a large proportion of the planet’s protected areas, the ecology of vertebrates in high elevation areas have received little attention from researchers and managers. I studied two subspecies of horned larks (Eremophila alpestris articola and E. a. strigata) that breed at high elevation and latitude in British Columbia, Canada and at low elevation and latitude in Washington, USA, respectively. I addressed the question of how the life history of alpine breeding songbirds differs from their low elevation conspecifics and showed that life history variation can be found among closely related groups. My results were consistent with other comparative demographic studies which suggest that alpine vertebrate populations tend to show survivor life history strategies when compared to their low elevation counterparts. In addition, population growth rates were stable for E. a. articola suggesting that this subspecies is well ...