The breeding ecology and behavioural adaptations of African black oystercatchers in light of climate change

Azaki, Bukola Debola Aderewa

The breeding ecology and behavioural adaptations of African black oystercatchers in light of climate change

Doctoral Thesis

2021

Abstract

This thesis examined how weather conditions and other environmental factors influence the vulnerability of nesting African Black Oystercatchers Haematopus moquini (oystercatchers) to climate and habitat change. I explore, for the first time, the behavioural adaptations used by the species to cope with breeding in a limited strip of beach, between high tides and terrestrial predators, and with little nesting shelter, and their breeding decisions to maximise breeding outcomes. Behavioural and breeding data were collected over three breeding seasons (2016—2018) on Robben Island, South Africa (a site with about 5% of the global population of the species) using time-lapse digital cameras and direct observations. Climate and environmental variables were obtained either through on-site iButton data loggers or from the relevant South African meteorological agencies. The results show that oystercatchers are vulnerable to increasing heat loads as temperature increases. However, oystercatchers used a suite of thermoregulatory behaviours to cope with a wide range of environmental temperatures and decreased the length of their incubation bouts as temperature increased. The proximity of the oystercatchers' breeding site to the ocean appears to contribute significantly to their capacity to cope with increasing heat loads. But such sites potentially expose the oystercatchers to the risk of nest losses to storm surges. Oystercatchers reduced this risk by using habitat selection to optimise the placement of their nests close to the midpoint of the beach, but some were constrained by the narrowness of their territories. Oystercatchers also used the biweekly semilunar spring tide cycle to synchronise the incubation start date of their clutches probably to minimise the number of spring tides that they experience during incubation. Predation was the main cause of oystercatcher nest failure. Surprisingly, Mole Snakes Pseudaspis cana were responsible in all cases where the predator identity was known rather than Kelp Gulls which have historically been suggested to be the main agent. Nest predation probability was influenced by temperature and distance to predator-concealing vegetation and increased as more nests became available, causing a seasonal decline of nest survival. Hence, oystercatcher pairs laying large clutches early in the season were more likely to produce one juvenile in a season. The average number of fledgelings per pair per season was 0.38 and close to that (0.35) required to maintain a stable population. These findings improve our understanding of the breeding ecology and behavioural adaptations of the oystercatchers which might help them to cope with climate change as well as provide new insights on which management decisions and further studies can be based.

Keywords

Biological Sciences

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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