Tracking wintering areas and post-breeding migration of a declining farmland bird – An indispensable basis for successful conservation ...

• Main Authors: Kämpfer, Steffen, Kruckenberg, Helmut, Düttmann, Heinz, Kölzsch, Andrea, Jiguet, Frédéric, Bocher, Pierrick, Fartmann, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Universität Osnabrück 2023
• Subjects: Bird hunting; Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata; GPS tracking; Movement ecology; Stopover area; Threatened species; 590 - Tiere Zoologie; 570 - Biowissenschaften, Biologie; Eurasian Curlew; Numenius arquata
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48693/492; https://osnadocs.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/ds-2024021510673

Many farmland birds, such as the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata; here in after Curlew), are in steep decline. So far, decreased reproduction and, hence, an insufficient number of offspring to compensate for adult mortality has been considered the main driver of the recent population collapse. However, despite extensive conservation measures in most breeding areas, there are no signs of a general reversal of the population trend. Accordingly, conservation has to focus on decreasing adult mortality outside the breeding areas as well. For Curlews breeding in NW Germany, ring recoveries suggest that the main wintering areas are the coastlines of western France and southern England. However, such data are often biased in space and time. Here, we used GPS tracking to investigate the wintering areas and post-breeding migration of Curlews of the main German breeding population based on large sample size. Altogether, we tagged 86 adult breeding birds at 23 subareas across a transect of about 250 km (in length) in ...