Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation.
Despite the ubiquity and magnitude of food provision to wildlife, our understanding of its ecological effects and conservation implications is very limited. Supplementary feeding of ungulates, still one of the main paradigms of game management in Europe, occurs in natural areas on an enormous scale....
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d4018b0332254fe5a2c0fdf47a2bd847 2023-05-15T18:42:17+02:00 Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. Nuria Selva Teresa Berezowska-Cnota Isabel Elguero-Claramunt 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 https://doaj.org/article/d4018b0332254fe5a2c0fdf47a2bd847 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24599216/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 https://doaj.org/article/d4018b0332254fe5a2c0fdf47a2bd847 PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e90740 (2014) Medicine R Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 2022-12-31T07:23:55Z Despite the ubiquity and magnitude of food provision to wildlife, our understanding of its ecological effects and conservation implications is very limited. Supplementary feeding of ungulates, still one of the main paradigms of game management in Europe, occurs in natural areas on an enormous scale. We investigated the indirect effects of this practice on nest predation risk in the Polish Eastern Carpathians (Bieszczady Mountains). We hypothesized that the predators attracted to ungulate baiting sites would also forage for alternative prey nearby, increasing the nest predation risk for ground-nesting birds in the vicinity. We conducted a paired experiment by placing artificial nests (N=120) in feeding and control sites (N=12) at different distances from the ungulate feeding site. We also documented the use of three ungulate feeding sites by potential nest predators with automatic cameras. The proportion of depredated nests was 30% higher in the vicinity of feeding sites than at control sites (65%± 31.5 vs 35%± 32.1). The probability of a nest being depredated significantly increased with time and at shorter distances from the feeding site. We predicted that the area within 1-km distance from the feeding site would have a high risk (>0.5) of nest predation. We recorded 13 species of potential ground-nest predators at ungulate baiting sites. Most frequent were Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius, mice and voles Muroidea, ravens Corvus corax, brown bears Ursus arctos, and wild boar Sus scrofa. Nest predators made most use of supplementary feeding sites (82% pictures with predators vs 8% with ungulates, the target group). Our study alerts of the impacts of ungulate feeding on alternative prey; this is of special concern when affecting protected species. We urge for a sensible management of ungulate feeding, which considers potential indirect effects on other species and the spatial and temporal components of food provision. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 9 3 e90740 |
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language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Nuria Selva Teresa Berezowska-Cnota Isabel Elguero-Claramunt Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Despite the ubiquity and magnitude of food provision to wildlife, our understanding of its ecological effects and conservation implications is very limited. Supplementary feeding of ungulates, still one of the main paradigms of game management in Europe, occurs in natural areas on an enormous scale. We investigated the indirect effects of this practice on nest predation risk in the Polish Eastern Carpathians (Bieszczady Mountains). We hypothesized that the predators attracted to ungulate baiting sites would also forage for alternative prey nearby, increasing the nest predation risk for ground-nesting birds in the vicinity. We conducted a paired experiment by placing artificial nests (N=120) in feeding and control sites (N=12) at different distances from the ungulate feeding site. We also documented the use of three ungulate feeding sites by potential nest predators with automatic cameras. The proportion of depredated nests was 30% higher in the vicinity of feeding sites than at control sites (65%± 31.5 vs 35%± 32.1). The probability of a nest being depredated significantly increased with time and at shorter distances from the feeding site. We predicted that the area within 1-km distance from the feeding site would have a high risk (>0.5) of nest predation. We recorded 13 species of potential ground-nest predators at ungulate baiting sites. Most frequent were Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius, mice and voles Muroidea, ravens Corvus corax, brown bears Ursus arctos, and wild boar Sus scrofa. Nest predators made most use of supplementary feeding sites (82% pictures with predators vs 8% with ungulates, the target group). Our study alerts of the impacts of ungulate feeding on alternative prey; this is of special concern when affecting protected species. We urge for a sensible management of ungulate feeding, which considers potential indirect effects on other species and the spatial and temporal components of food provision. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nuria Selva Teresa Berezowska-Cnota Isabel Elguero-Claramunt |
author_facet |
Nuria Selva Teresa Berezowska-Cnota Isabel Elguero-Claramunt |
author_sort |
Nuria Selva |
title |
Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
title_short |
Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
title_full |
Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
title_fullStr |
Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
title_sort |
unforeseen effects of supplementary feeding: ungulate baiting sites as hotspots for ground-nest predation. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 https://doaj.org/article/d4018b0332254fe5a2c0fdf47a2bd847 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e90740 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24599216/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 https://doaj.org/article/d4018b0332254fe5a2c0fdf47a2bd847 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090740 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
e90740 |
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