4.4 Article

FIGHT OR FLIGHT: PARENTAL DECISIONS ABOUT PREDATORS AT NESTS OF NORTHERN BOBWHITES (COLINUS VIRGINIANUS)

Journal

AUK
Volume 130, Issue 4, Pages 637-644

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1525/auk.2013.12227

Keywords

Colinus virginianus; nest defense; nest predation; Northern Bobwhite; parental investment; video monitoring

Categories

Funding

  1. Direct Congressional Appropriation
  2. University of Georgia Graduate School
  3. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
  4. Albany Quail Project
  5. Tall Timbers Research Station
  6. Land Conservancy, Inc.
  7. U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services
  8. Northeast Georgia Chapter of Quail Unlimited
  9. McIntire-Stennis Project GEO 100
  10. McIntire-Stennis Project GEO 136

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Patterns of nest defense against predators by ground-nesting bird species in the wild are poorly understood, largely because of a historical inability to directly monitor nests. Most nest-defense studies have observed responses elicited from artificial predators or human observers presented to nesting birds, and few have attempted to present these events in the context of predator prey relationships found in the wild. We hypothesized that predator threat level (e.g., the threat posed to the clutch or to the clutch and the attending adult), parental characteristics, clutch investment, and future reproductive opportunities would influence avian nest-defense decisions. During 1999-2006, we examined predation events (n = 242) from 790 video-monitored Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) nests. We evaluated parental, predator, daily, and seasonal correlates that potentially contributed to patterns of nest defense by Northern Bobwhites using a model selection approach. The top model showed that nest defense was strongest at nests with larger predators that posed a threat to both adults and the clutch. This model also contained clutch size, but parameter estimates suggest that predator type was the only significant factor determining rates of nest defense. Our results suggest that Northern Bobwhites use the threat posed to the nest and the attending adult by the approaching predator as the primary cue in decisions to engage in nest defense.

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