| Summary: | Global agricultural landscapes are witnessing a concerning decline in biodiversity, and this trend is predicted to persist. To safeguard these biodiversity-rich areas, it's crucial to pinpoint hotspots effectively. In doing so, we utilized various species of birds of prey as suitable sentinel animals due to their mobility and dependence on prey diversity and abundance. Between 2019 and 2021, we tracked 62 individuals from four predator species using GPS loggers in Estonian farmland. Dividing the study area into 50-meter grids and overlaying them with tracked individuals' locations enabled us to differentiate between hotspots of their activity and control sites. We conducted surveys on amphibians, birds, small mammals, and plant diversity to determine if avian predator activity hotspots correlated with overall biodiversity. Our findings revealed significantly higher diversity and abundance in the surveyed groups within activity hotspots compared to control sites. These hotspots continued to be frequented by raptors in the subsequent year, albeit not two years later. In conclusion, multispecies GPS telemetry of avian predators emerges as an objective, dependable, and spatially accurate biodiversity indicator. With the accumulation of movement data, we anticipate increased interest and adoption of this approach in biodiversity monitoring. Funding provided by: Estonian Environmental Investments Centre* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 15632 Funding provided by: Estonian Environmental Board, and the Estonian University of Life Sciences* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 8-10/271 Funding provided by: European Commission Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/00k4n6c32 Award Number: MOBJD402 GPS Telemetry Dataset Starting from April 2019, we trapped individuals of four different species of birds of prey in their known breeding territories. We used large mistnets with stuffed specimens of large avian top predators (white-tailed eagle and eagle owl) to provoke the attack of the focal species ...
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