Avian Ecology Exam 1 Material

7 tenants of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model:

1. Wildlife us held in the ______ trust

2. Eliminating commerce in _____ wildlife

3. Allocating wildlife use through _____

4. Hunting opportunity for ____

5. Wildlife may be killed only for _______ reasons

6. wildlife is an _________ resource

7. ______ is the basis for wildlife policy

public, dead, law, all, legitimate, international, science

This is applying science and technical principles to wildlife populations and habitats for a desired outcome

wildlife management

Usually in our field, our objective involves more than just attracting wildlife, it is _____ or _______. This involves knowing growth and reproduction

producing, reducing

To manage a target species, you must know that species but also its what? (3 things)

prey, predators, competitors

_______ Law of the minimum: growth is controlled not by the total of resources but the most _______ resource

Liebig's, limited

Dr. Smith argues that food is ______ a limiting resource for birds

rarely

Johnson 1980 outlines this theory in his paper

orders of selection

ability of environment to provide conditions appropriate for survival, reproductive, and population persistence

Habitat quality

Landscape-scaled features that are correlated with the distribution and abundance of populations. Often used to describe seral stages or discrete arrays of specific vegetative types.

macrohabitat

Specific, recognizable features of the environment that act as proximal cues to elicit a settling response from an individual bird.

microhabitat

physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species and which may require special management considerations or protection

critical habitat

this is the probability of being alive between time t and time t+1

survival

5 ways to measure survival

observed, indexed, change in ratio, mark-recapture, tag/band recovery

survival of an individual can be influenced by these 3 factors

age, sex, season

Who's surviving can be _____ specific or ______ specific mortality

habitat, cause

differences in survival related to use or presence in particular habitats

habitat specific survival

probability of succumbing to a mortality agent while in the presence of other mortality agents

cause-specific mortality

nest success, retest rate, nesting rate, bird success, double clutching, and fledging are examples of what in birds?

measures of reproduction

Van Horne 1983 poses _____ as a misleading indicator of habitat quality

density

this type of study may ask "what types of birds occur in a particular habitat?"

descriptive study

This type of study asks "where do/don't birds occur?"

distribution study

This type of study asks "have bird densities within a particular area or within a given habitat changed over time?"

population monitoring

This type of study asks "do birds occur at higher air lower densities in different habitat types?"

assessing habitat requirements

This type of study asks "do alterations of the habitat impact bird densities within a habitat?"

management experiments

large scale methods give estimates of abundance with ____ accuracy than small scale studies

lower

examples of large-scale methods of estimating bird abundance/distribution

Christmas bird count, breeding bird survey, breeding bird atlas

Sources of error in bird surveys include unequal ______ coverage, different birds having different _____ and _____ , and variability between _______

geographic, mobility, detectability, and observers

bird survey technique where the observer stands at a single spot and counts birds seen or heard within a specific time period

point count

bird survey technique where the observer walks a transect, counting all birds heard/seen and measuring their distance from the line

line transects

bird survey technique that includes mapping the territory of individual pairs

spot mapping

Mark-recapture surveys use types of tags that fall under 3 categories depending on the duration of the study. What are they?

temporary, semi-permanent, permanent

wildlife bred, born, raised and held in captivity

captive/pen-reared

populations able to persist in a healthy state without outside assistance

self sustaining

intentional or inadvertent release of individuals into an area outside their historical range

introduction

releasing individuals within their historically native range for the purpose of establishing a viable, self-sustaining population

reintroduction

releasing individuals into an existing population for the purpose of enhancing population viability

restocking

reintroduction's main goal

re-establish an extirpated population

restocking's main goal

supplement wild population

when introducing/restocking game birds for hunting opportunities, _____ and ____ are not needed because the aim is not to create a self-sustaining population

survival and reproduction

Does Dr. Smith view restocking programs as effective?

no

pen reared birds have low survival, with leading cause of mortality being what?

predation

Successful reintroduction species recovery examples

California condor and Puerto Rican Parrot

two possible consequences to keep in mind when releasing pen-reared birds

disease and genetics

Example of a bird species adapted to human development (mentioned by Dr. McCune)

peregrine falcon

Bird extinct due to overexploitation

passenger pigeon

#1 current direct threat to biodiversity

habitat loss

From years 1930-2000, wild turkey populations in the US were ____

increasing

From 2001-current, wild turkey populations in the US are ____

decreasing

turkey and quail young are able to walk, have feathers, feed themselves, etc. from a young age. This is known as...

precocial

on a year round basis, turkeys are categorized as habitat _____

generalists

turkey lifespan

5-6 yrs

In Alabama, the onset of breeding conditions in wild turkeys is triggered by 12+ hours of daylight beginning in this month

March

In alabama, laying (nest initiation) peaks when?

early April

Average wild turkey clutch size

10 eggs

during nest initiation, hens lay ___ egg(s) a day

1

About how many hens attempt to nest?

70%

To be sure all poults hatch at the same time, do hens start incubating before or after all eggs are laid?

after

when are turkey eggs most vulnerable?

pre-incubation

when does incubation peak for turkeys in AL?

mid-April

Wild turkey incubation length

28 days

In alabama, peak hatching for wild turkeys happens

mid-late May

This veg type is critical for young turkeys to forage because it houses the most insects

herbaceous

avg wild turkey brood survival?

30%

turkey poults are flighted at ____ weeks old

1-2

Medium sized predators increase in abundance as larger predators disappear from small fragments

mesopredator release

vegetation height to optimize turkey nest success

knee-high

Are adult quail mainly granivorous or insectivorous?

granivorous

Are quail chicks mainly granivorous or insectivorous?

insectivorous

Quail populations have been ____ since the 1960s

declining

Main causes for decline of quail

intensive forestry, row crop agriculture, and exotic spp.

plausible quail:acre ratio for unmanaged lands

1:20

plausible quail:acre ratio for intensively managed quail plantations

1:1

Annual survival % range for quail

5-27%

Quail breeding season

April-September

Quail nest success % range

20-55%

Typical # of quail nest attempts/year to produce one successful nest?

2-3

Do male or female turkey incubate the nest?

female

Do male or female quail incubate the nest?

both

preferable habitat for quail chicks offers these two things

mobility and insects

How many years post-disturbance is optimal habitat for quail chicks?

1-2 years

Preferred habitat for quail in general

early successional

Van Horne 1983: Why can bird density be a misleading measure of habitat quality?

Density ≠ quality

Van Horne 1983: How should habitat quality be measured rather than using density alone?

Survival and reproduction

Van Horne 1983: What happens when surplus birds are forced into poor-quality habitat?

Sink populations

Van Horne 1983: What is a source habitat?

High reproductive success

Van Horne 1983: What is a sink habitat?

Low reproductive success

Van Horne 1983: Why might territorial birds occur at high densities in poor habitat?

Floaters

Van Horne 1983: How can breeding success differ from bird density?

Inverse relationship

Van Horne 1983: What bird behavior can cause density to reflect past rather than current habitat quality?

Site tenacity

Van Horne 1983: When is density more likely to indicate habitat quality?

Low population density

Van Horne 1983: What three environmental characteristics increase density-quality decoupling?

Seasonality, unpredictability, patchiness

Johnson 1980: What is the basic comparison used to determine resource preference?

Usage vs availability

Johnson 1980: What does selective usage mean?

Disproportionate use

Johnson 1980: What does resource preference reflect?

Choice likelihood

Johnson 1980: Why can usage-availability studies be misleading?

Availability assumptions

Johnson 1980: What does Johnson's rank method compare?

Usage and availability ranks

Johnson 1980: What is the main advantage of the rank method?

Relative preference

Johnson 1980: What type of selection occurs when birds choose their geographic range?

First-order selection

Johnson 1980: What type of selection determines an individual's home range?

Second-order selection

Johnson 1980: What type of selection involves habitat components within a home range?

Third-order selection