Journal
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
Volume 142, Issue 3, Pages 689-695Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.11.020
Keywords
Agri-environment schemes; Botaurus stellaris; Habitat selection; Phragmites australis; Reed harvesting
Funding
- Fondation Sansouire
- European Commission [LIFE00 NAT/F/007269]
- office Franco-Quebecois pour la Jeunesse
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The vulnerable Eurasian bittern Botaurus stellaris has recently benefited from conservation actions in several European countries. The Camargue in Mediterranean France holds 8000 ha of reed marshes and 50% of the French bittern population estimated at 300-350 booming males. Although reed cutting in Europe is a current practice, we provide the first analyses on habitat selection relative to reed exploitation. The contribution of reed harvesting and water management was assessed at a fine scale (digitized aerial photographs of 50-cm resolution) based on multi-modelling data analyses. GLMs applied to random and bittern points of 50-m radius showed that bitterns preferred areas with less than 10% open water enclosing 1-year reeds. Only in harvested reedbeds had the water management a significant impact on habitat selection, with bitterns avoiding areas dried during less than two months and flooded since less than 8 months. Water edge played a role in non-harvested reeds only, with bittern seeking for areas with the highest ratio water edge to open water. Although reed cutting is generally considered as detrimental in the short term, two 4-year experiments showed a marked increase in bitterns the first spring after cutting was interrupted. Based on these results, we propose various management scenarios that conciliate economic constraints of reed harvesters and protection of Eurasian bittern populations. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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