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Behavioural plasticity in nest-site selection of a colonial seabird in response to an invasive carnivore

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Abstract

Non-native invasive species are one of the most serious threats to biodiversity and are considered the leading cause of extinction of several bird taxa, including seabirds. Introduced American mink (Neovison vison) have caused devastating effects on island populations of several colonial seabird species. In this study, we investigated the direct and indirect effects of mink on population dynamics and reproductive success of European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) breeding at Illas Cíes, one of the most important colonies of the species in Southern Europe. A severe episode of mink predation on adult shags occurred in the year when mink arrived in the breeding colonies, though the number of shags killed dropped abruptly in subsequent years. We found that, after the arrival of mink, shags moved to nest-sites that afforded greater protection from carnivores. This shift caused a substantial reduction in mortality by predation, but probably entailed a cost in terms of their reproductive success because sites with lower levels of predation risk showed a higher risk of egg loss by nest flooding due to poorer drainage. Our study highlights that behavioural plasticity may allow shags to cope with invasive predators.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the staff at the Parque Natural Illas Cíes and Parque Nacional Illas Atlánticas de Galicia for logistic support all over the study period, especially to Ramón Nogueira, José Antonio Fernández Bouzas, Vicente Piorno, Susana Torres and Gonzalo Puerto. We are especially grateful to Beatriz Gamallo, Francisco Docampo, Carmen Díaz, Antonio Sampedro, José Manuel Sanchez for their assistance in fieldwork. We thank Alejandro Martinez-Abraín and one anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript. Permissions were guaranteed by Xunta de Galicia and Parque Nacional Illas Atlánticas de Galicia. Finance was provided by the Spanish Ministerio de Medio Ambiente (Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales, 48/2005; 275/2011). Ignacio Munilla was financially supported by an Isidro Parga Pondal fellowship (Xunta de Galicia).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Campus As Lagoas, Universidade de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Álvaro Barros & Alberto Velando

  2. Presidente Salvador Allende nº 13, Baixo A, 15704, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Rafael Romero

  3. Departamento de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Ignacio Munilla

  4. Eco-Ethology Research Unit, ISPA, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041, Lisbon, Portugal

    Cristobal Pérez

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  1. Álvaro Barros
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  2. Rafael Romero
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  3. Ignacio Munilla
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  4. Cristobal Pérez
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  5. Alberto Velando
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Correspondence to Álvaro Barros.

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Barros, Á., Romero, R., Munilla, I. et al. Behavioural plasticity in nest-site selection of a colonial seabird in response to an invasive carnivore. Biol Invasions 18, 3149–3161 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1205-3

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