Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species
Abstract Background Winter numbers of the northwest European population of Bewick’s Swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) declined recently by c. 40%. During the same period, numbers of two sympatric and ecologically-similar congeners, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) showe...
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ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302.v1 2023-05-15T15:59:45+02:00 Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species Wood, Kevin A. Newth, Julia L. Hilton, Geoff M. Rees, Eileen C. 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302.v1 https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Behavioural_and_energetic_consequences_of_competition_among_three_overwintering_swan_Cygnus_spp_species/5628302/1 unknown figshare https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00282-5 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Ecology FOS Biological sciences Collection article 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302.v1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00282-5 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Abstract Background Winter numbers of the northwest European population of Bewick’s Swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) declined recently by c. 40%. During the same period, numbers of two sympatric and ecologically-similar congeners, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) showed increases or stability. It has been suggested that these opposing population trends could have a causal relationship, as Mute and Whooper Swans are larger and competitively dominant to Bewick’s Swans in foraging situations. If so, effects of competition of Mute and Whooper Swans on Bewick’s Swans should be detectable as measurable impacts on behaviour and energetics. Methods Here, we studied the diurnal behaviour and energetics of 1083 focal adults and first-winter juveniles (“cygnets”) of the three swan species on their winter grounds in eastern England. We analysed video recordings to derive time-activity budgets and these, together with estimates of energy gain and expenditure, were analysed to determine whether individual Bewick’s Swans altered the time spent on key behaviours when sharing feeding habitat with other swan species, and any consequences for their energy expenditure and net energy gain. Results All three swan species spent a small proportion of their total time (0.011) on aggressive interactions, and these were predominantly intraspecific (≥ 0.714). Mixed-effects models indicated that sharing feeding habitat with higher densities of Mute and Whooper Swans increased the likelihood of engaging in aggression for cygnet Bewick’s Swans, but not for adults. Higher levels of interspecific competition decreased the time spent by Bewick’s Swan cygnets on foraging, whilst adults showed the opposite pattern. When among low densities of conspecifics ( Article in Journal/Newspaper Cygnus columbianus Cygnus cygnus Whooper Swan DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Olor ENVELOPE(88.531,88.531,69.600,69.600) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
spellingShingle |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences Wood, Kevin A. Newth, Julia L. Hilton, Geoff M. Rees, Eileen C. Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
topic_facet |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
description |
Abstract Background Winter numbers of the northwest European population of Bewick’s Swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) declined recently by c. 40%. During the same period, numbers of two sympatric and ecologically-similar congeners, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) showed increases or stability. It has been suggested that these opposing population trends could have a causal relationship, as Mute and Whooper Swans are larger and competitively dominant to Bewick’s Swans in foraging situations. If so, effects of competition of Mute and Whooper Swans on Bewick’s Swans should be detectable as measurable impacts on behaviour and energetics. Methods Here, we studied the diurnal behaviour and energetics of 1083 focal adults and first-winter juveniles (“cygnets”) of the three swan species on their winter grounds in eastern England. We analysed video recordings to derive time-activity budgets and these, together with estimates of energy gain and expenditure, were analysed to determine whether individual Bewick’s Swans altered the time spent on key behaviours when sharing feeding habitat with other swan species, and any consequences for their energy expenditure and net energy gain. Results All three swan species spent a small proportion of their total time (0.011) on aggressive interactions, and these were predominantly intraspecific (≥ 0.714). Mixed-effects models indicated that sharing feeding habitat with higher densities of Mute and Whooper Swans increased the likelihood of engaging in aggression for cygnet Bewick’s Swans, but not for adults. Higher levels of interspecific competition decreased the time spent by Bewick’s Swan cygnets on foraging, whilst adults showed the opposite pattern. When among low densities of conspecifics ( |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wood, Kevin A. Newth, Julia L. Hilton, Geoff M. Rees, Eileen C. |
author_facet |
Wood, Kevin A. Newth, Julia L. Hilton, Geoff M. Rees, Eileen C. |
author_sort |
Wood, Kevin A. |
title |
Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
title_short |
Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
title_full |
Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
title_fullStr |
Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
title_full_unstemmed |
Behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (Cygnus spp.) species |
title_sort |
behavioural and energetic consequences of competition among three overwintering swan (cygnus spp.) species |
publisher |
figshare |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302.v1 https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Behavioural_and_energetic_consequences_of_competition_among_three_overwintering_swan_Cygnus_spp_species/5628302/1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(88.531,88.531,69.600,69.600) |
geographic |
Olor |
geographic_facet |
Olor |
genre |
Cygnus columbianus Cygnus cygnus Whooper Swan |
genre_facet |
Cygnus columbianus Cygnus cygnus Whooper Swan |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00282-5 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302.v1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00282-5 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5628302 |
_version_ |
1766395665575837696 |