Home range of the Dalmatian pelican in south-east Europe

Delineating an animal's home range is crucial for understanding its spatial ecological requirements and vital for management and conservation decisions. We applied a dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Model to investigate the movements, annual home range (HR) and core area (CA) size of eleven Dalmatian pelicans Pelecanus crispus fitted with satellite transmitters in northern Greece. The average monitoring period per bird ranged from 126 to 365 days, but tracking duration was unrelated to the overall distance covered by the birds. Altogether tracked pelicans visited 31 water bodies. The average home range (95% utilisation distribution) was estimated at ca. 461 km(2) while the core area (50% utilisation distribution) was estimated at ca. 14.4 km(2), representing 3.12% of the former. The home range size of the studied birds varied widely between individuals, ranging from 43 to 1533 km(2). Home ranges were not single areas but on average consisted of 4.1 different nuclei (range = 1-8), often more than one in a single wetland. Sex did not have an effect on the annual HR (or CA) size of the species. There were no similar or comparable patterns of seasonal movements between the pelicans monitored, and no statistically significant seasonal variation was found in HR and CA sizes. The conservation of Dalmatian pelican populations in south-east Europe depends not only on good habitat conditions prevailing in individual breeding wetlands but also on a wider network of water bodies in the region.

Automated summary

This study examined the movements and home range sizes of eleven Dalmatian pelicans in northern Greece. The average home range was estimated at 461 km(2), with a core area of 14.4 km(2), representing 3.12% of the former. There was significant variation in home range sizes between individuals, but no effect of sex or seasonal variation on home range size was found.