Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus

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dc.contributor.authorGarcía-Heras, Marie-Sophieen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCortés-Avizanda, Ainaraen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDonázar, José-Antonioen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-11-11T14:28:52Z
dc.date.available2015-11-11T14:28:52Z
dc.date.issued2013en_ZA
dc.description.abstractSupplementary feeding stations, or "vulture restaurants", are common conservation management tools. While a number of studies have investigated the consequences of surplus food on the population dynamics of scavengers, relatively little is known about the effects of such practices at the individual level. Within the long-term monitored breeding population of Canarian Egyptian vultures ( Neophron percnopterus majorensis ) we investigated individual bird’s patterns of use of a supplementary feeding station at Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), over the course of breeding (2001, 2002; 2004-2011) and non-breeding seasons (2000-2010). Our results show that during the breeding season the individual use of the supplementary feeding station was inversely related to the distance to the breeding territory, which suggests the existence of central-place foraging constraints. In addition, larger birds of poor body-condition and individuals that ultimately failed to fledge young were detected more frequently at the feeding station. During the non-breeding season, and because most breeding birds abandoned the breeding territories, the overall abundance of Egyptian vultures at the feeding station grew. Moreover, the only variable increasing the probability of presence of individuals was poor body condition so that birds with lower wing residual visited the feeding station more frequently. Supplementary feeding may benefit individuals who would otherwise have been subject to selective pressures. From our results it follows that this conservation strategy must be used with caution because it can have consequences on an individual level and thus potentially affect the viability of endangered populations.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationGarcía-Heras, M., Cortés-Avizanda, A., & Donázar, J. (2013). Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus. <i>PLoS One</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14933en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationGarcía-Heras, Marie-Sophie, Ainara Cortés-Avizanda, and José-Antonio Donázar "Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus." <i>PLoS One</i> (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14933en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGarcía-Heras, M. S., Cortés-Avizanda, A., & Donázar, J. A. (2012). Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus. PloS one, 8(11), e80523. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080523en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - García-Heras, Marie-Sophie AU - Cortés-Avizanda, Ainara AU - Donázar, José-Antonio AB - Supplementary feeding stations, or "vulture restaurants", are common conservation management tools. While a number of studies have investigated the consequences of surplus food on the population dynamics of scavengers, relatively little is known about the effects of such practices at the individual level. Within the long-term monitored breeding population of Canarian Egyptian vultures ( Neophron percnopterus majorensis ) we investigated individual bird’s patterns of use of a supplementary feeding station at Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), over the course of breeding (2001, 2002; 2004-2011) and non-breeding seasons (2000-2010). Our results show that during the breeding season the individual use of the supplementary feeding station was inversely related to the distance to the breeding territory, which suggests the existence of central-place foraging constraints. In addition, larger birds of poor body-condition and individuals that ultimately failed to fledge young were detected more frequently at the feeding station. During the non-breeding season, and because most breeding birds abandoned the breeding territories, the overall abundance of Egyptian vultures at the feeding station grew. Moreover, the only variable increasing the probability of presence of individuals was poor body condition so that birds with lower wing residual visited the feeding station more frequently. Supplementary feeding may benefit individuals who would otherwise have been subject to selective pressures. From our results it follows that this conservation strategy must be used with caution because it can have consequences on an individual level and thus potentially affect the viability of endangered populations. DA - 2013 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0080523 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLoS One LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2013 T1 - Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus TI - Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14933 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/14933
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080523
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationGarcía-Heras M, Cortés-Avizanda A, Donázar J. Who are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus. PLoS One. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14933.en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentPercy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.rights.holder© 2013García-Heras et alen_ZA
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_ZA
dc.sourcePLoS Oneen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosoneen_ZA
dc.subject.otherBirdsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherForagingen_ZA
dc.subject.otherConservation scienceen_ZA
dc.subject.otherDemographyen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPopulation ecologyen_ZA
dc.titleWho are we feeding? Asymmetric individual use of surplus food resources in an insular population of the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterusen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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