Abstract
Birds providing prey with a clumped distribution often return to the previous capture site after having delivered a prey item at the nest. However, details of this foraging tactic are still poorly known, in particular for birds of prey, which often travel far from their nest. We radio-tracked four provisioning male Boreal Owls (Aegolius funereus) during the nighttime and simultaneously recorded their prey deliveries by a video camera positioned at the nest in an increase year of the vole cycle. The camera allowed prey identification and made it possible to assign prey deliveries to fixes of the foraging owls, i.e. the last recorded fix before the owl returned to the nest for a prey delivery. Within a single night, the owls returned more often than randomly expected to the area where they had captured the previous prey item. A prey item delivered was more likely than randomly expected to be of the same species as the previous prey item delivered. However, the probability of a prey item delivered being of the same species as the previous prey item delivered was independent of whether the owl had returned to the area where it captured the previous prey and did not decrease with longer time elapsed since the previous delivery. The owls did not shift hunting area from one night to the next to a larger extent than they did over a longer time span, and overall tended to shift their hunting area gradually over more nights. Our study should be replicated in a peak vole year with higher prey abundance as well as in a low vole year, which should improve the study results by enabling a higher spatial and temporal resolution of the data on the owls’ movements.
Zusammenfassung
Rückkehren zu mehr Beute? Nahrungssuche während der Fütterung bei männlichen Rauhfußkäuzen ( Aegolius funereus )
Vögel, die ihre Brut mit ungleichmäßig verteilten Beutetieren versorgen, kehren häufig zum vorherigen Fangort zurück, nachdem sie eine Beute am Nest abgegeben haben. Einzelheiten zu dieser Futtertaktik sind jedoch noch wenig bekannt, insbesondere bei Greifvögeln, die sich oft weit von ihrem Nest entfernen. Wir haben vier telemetrierte männliche Raufußkäuze (Aegolius funereus) während der Fütterungen nachts geortet und zugleich ihre Beuteübergabe mit einer Videokamera aufgezeichnet. Die Kamera befand sich am Nest und die Aufzeichnungen wurden in einem Jahr mit zunehmender Wühlmausabundanz gemacht. Die Kamera ermöglichte die Identifizierung der Beute und die Zuordnung der Beute zum Standort der nahrungssuchenden Eule, d. h. dem zuletzt aufgezeichneten Standort, bevor die Eule zur Beuteübergabe zum Nest zurückkehrte. Innerhalb einer Nacht kehrten die Eulen häufiger als zufällig erwartet in das Gebiet zurück, in dem sie die vorherige Beute gefangen hatten. Es war wahrscheinlicher als nach dem Zufallsprinzip, dass eine gelieferte Beute von derselben Art war wie die zuvor gebrachte Beute. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass eine gebrachte Beute dieselbe Art wie die zuvor gelieferte war jedoch unabhängig davon, ob die Eule in das Gebiet zurückgekehrt war, in dem sie die vorherige Beute gefangen hatte, und verringerte sich nicht mit der seit der vorherigen Übergabe verstrichenen Zeit. Zwischen folgenden Nächten verlegten die Eulen ihre Jagdgebiete nicht mehr als über einen längeren Zeitraum. Insgesamt tendierten sie dazu, ihre Jagdgebiete allmählich zu verlagern. Unsere Studie sollte in einem Jahr mit einem Höchststand an Beutetieren sowie in einem Jahr mit wenig Mäusen wiederholt werden, und sollte durch eine höhere räumliche und zeitliche Auflösung der Bewegungsdaten der Eulen verbessert werden.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Sigmund Rolfsjord and Cathrine S. Torjussen for assistance during the field work, and Vidar Selås, Cathrine S. Torjussen and two anonymous referees for constructive comments on the manuscript. The Norwegian Environment Agency and the National Animal Research Authority in Norway granted permissions to radio-tag the owls. The Norwegian Environment Agency and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences provided financial support for the study.
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GAS originally formulated the idea, GAS and R Steen developed the field methodology, R Sørås and OAG conducted most of the field work, R Sørås, OAG, and GAS identified the prey from video, R Sørås did the spatial analysis, R Sørås and GAS did the statistical analysis, R Sørås and GAS wrote the manuscript, and OAG and R Steen provided editorial advice.
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Sørås, R., Gundersen, O.A., Steen, R. et al. Returning for more prey? Foraging in provisioning male Boreal Owls (Aegolius funereus). J Ornithol 161, 171–181 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-019-01710-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-019-01710-6