Habitat selection of foraging male Great Snipes on floodplain meadows: importance of proximity to the lek, vegetation cover and bare ground ...

• Main Authors: Korniluk, Michał, Białomyzy, Paweł, Grygoruk, Grzegorz, Kozub, Łukasz, Sielezniew, Marcin, Świętochowski, Piotr, Tumiel, Tomasz, Wereszczuk, Marcin, Chylarecki, Przemysław
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: FOS: Biological sciences; Gallinago media; great snipe
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.79cnp5ht8; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.79cnp5ht8

Drainage of wetlands and agricultural intensification has resulted in serious biodiversity loss in Europe, not least in grasslands. Consequently, many meadow birds have drastically declined, and the habitats they select for breeding currently rely on land management. However, the selection of habitats maintained by agriculture may contribute to reduced fitness and thus remain maladaptive for individuals, which makes conservation challenging. An understanding of the relationships between species’ habitat selection, food supply and land management in the context of species’ behaviour is therefore crucial for conservation. Lowland populations of Great Snipe Gallinago media are currently declining at a moderate rate, causing a conservation concern. We examined the daytime site selection (assumed as foraging sites) and food supply of radiotracked Great Snipe males breeding on a floodplain in NE Poland. Foraging sites were classified at micro- and macro-scale levels using the logistic regression in a ... : General study design To examine habitat selection of the Great Snipe, we applied a use–availability design in two spatial scales (a micro-scale model and macro-scale model), where environmental characteristics at the male Great Snipe daytime presence sites (‘used’) were contrasted with characteristics at random sites (‘available’) within the study area. The study area was located in NE Poland in the upper Narew river valley. To localize foraging locations, Great Snipe males were trapped in May 2013 and 2014 on two leks (lek1 and lek2) and equipped with VHF transmitters. When an individual was approached, we locate the precise feeding site from where it was flushed and then sampled the attributes of the habitat. Some non-tagged birds were flushed by coincidence during fieldwork, and when their exact foraging site was detected we applied the same sampling protocol and included the data in our analyses (n = 41). To determine available resources within the study area in 2013 and 2014, we generated 200 and 250 ...