Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators
The nests of ground‐nesting birds rely heavily on camouflage for their survival, and predation risk, often linked to ecological changes from human activity, is a major source of mortality. Numerous ground‐nesting bird populations are in decline, so understanding the effects of camouflage on their ne...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10501817 2023-10-09T21:56:25+02:00 Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators Hancock, George R. A. Grayshon, Lizzie Burrell, Ryan Cuthill, Innes Hoodless, Andrew Troscianko, Jolyon 2023-09-14 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501817/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501817/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 © 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Ecol Evol Research Articles Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 2023-09-17T01:05:29Z The nests of ground‐nesting birds rely heavily on camouflage for their survival, and predation risk, often linked to ecological changes from human activity, is a major source of mortality. Numerous ground‐nesting bird populations are in decline, so understanding the effects of camouflage on their nesting behavior is relevant to their conservation concerns. Habitat three‐dimensional (3D) geometry, together with predator visual abilities, viewing distance, and viewing angle, determine whether a nest is either visible, occluded, or too far away to detect. While this link is intuitive, few studies have investigated how fine‐scale geometry is likely to help defend nests from different predator guilds. We quantified nest visibility based on 3D occlusion, camouflage, and predator visual modeling in northern lapwings, Vanellus vanellus, on different land management regimes. Lapwings selected local backgrounds that had a higher 3D complexity at a spatial scale greater than their entire clutches compared to local control sites. Importantly, our findings show that habitat geometry—rather than predator visual acuity—restricts nest visibility for terrestrial predators and that their field habitats, perceived by humans as open, are functionally closed with respect to a terrestrial predator searching for nests on the ground. Taken together with lapwings' careful nest site selection, our findings highlight the importance of considering habitat geometry for understanding the evolutionary ecology and management of conservation sites for ground‐nesting birds. Text Vanellus vanellus PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology and Evolution 13 9 |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Hancock, George R. A. Grayshon, Lizzie Burrell, Ryan Cuthill, Innes Hoodless, Andrew Troscianko, Jolyon Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
topic_facet |
Research Articles |
description |
The nests of ground‐nesting birds rely heavily on camouflage for their survival, and predation risk, often linked to ecological changes from human activity, is a major source of mortality. Numerous ground‐nesting bird populations are in decline, so understanding the effects of camouflage on their nesting behavior is relevant to their conservation concerns. Habitat three‐dimensional (3D) geometry, together with predator visual abilities, viewing distance, and viewing angle, determine whether a nest is either visible, occluded, or too far away to detect. While this link is intuitive, few studies have investigated how fine‐scale geometry is likely to help defend nests from different predator guilds. We quantified nest visibility based on 3D occlusion, camouflage, and predator visual modeling in northern lapwings, Vanellus vanellus, on different land management regimes. Lapwings selected local backgrounds that had a higher 3D complexity at a spatial scale greater than their entire clutches compared to local control sites. Importantly, our findings show that habitat geometry—rather than predator visual acuity—restricts nest visibility for terrestrial predators and that their field habitats, perceived by humans as open, are functionally closed with respect to a terrestrial predator searching for nests on the ground. Taken together with lapwings' careful nest site selection, our findings highlight the importance of considering habitat geometry for understanding the evolutionary ecology and management of conservation sites for ground‐nesting birds. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hancock, George R. A. Grayshon, Lizzie Burrell, Ryan Cuthill, Innes Hoodless, Andrew Troscianko, Jolyon |
author_facet |
Hancock, George R. A. Grayshon, Lizzie Burrell, Ryan Cuthill, Innes Hoodless, Andrew Troscianko, Jolyon |
author_sort |
Hancock, George R. A. |
title |
Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
title_short |
Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
title_full |
Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
title_fullStr |
Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
title_full_unstemmed |
Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
title_sort |
habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground‐nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501817/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 |
genre |
Vanellus vanellus |
genre_facet |
Vanellus vanellus |
op_source |
Ecol Evol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501817/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10471 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
9 |
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1779321115460501504 |