Abstract
Many wildlife species have modified their behaviors in order to thrive within cities. Since the 1980’s, Harris’s Hawk has become a regular resident species in Mexico City, Mexico. Here, we report on what may be an urban adaptation — two Harris’s Hawks hunting bats in urban, southern Mexico City. This represents the first formal record of Harris’s Hawk preying on bats, either within anthropogenic or natural ecosystems. Cities might facilitate access to novel food resources for particular sorts of species, including urban adaptable ones such as the Harris’s Hawk.
Article PDF
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Ávila-Flores, R. & Fenton, M. B. 2005. Use of spatial features by foraging insectivorous bats in a large urban landscape. Journal of Mammalogy, 86: 1193–1204.
Baker, K. J. 1962. The manner and efficiency of raptor depredations on bats. The Condor, 64: 500–504.
Bednarz, J. C. 1988. Cooperative hunting in Harris’ Hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus). Science, 239: 1525–1527.
Beingolea, O. 2010. Harris’ Hawks in Lima, Peru. American Falconry, 54: 28–48.
Blair, R. 2004. The effects of urban sprawl on birds at multiple levels of biological organization. Ecology and Society, 9: 2.
Chace, J. F. & Walsh, J. J. 2006. Urban effects on native avifauna: a review. Landscape and Urban Planning, 74: 46–69.
Coulson, J. & Coulson, T. 2012. Natural history of the Harris’s Hawk, pp. 11–64. In: Coulson, J. & Coulson, T. The Harris’s Hawk revolution. Pearl River, LA: Parabuteo Publishing.
Dawson, J. W. 1998. Harris’ Hawk, pp. 77–81. In: Glinski, R. L. (ed.). The raptors of Arizona. Phoenix, AZ: University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, and Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Ditchkoff, S. S.; Saalfeld, S. T. & Gibson, C. J. 2006. Animal behavior in urban ecosystems: Modifications due to humaninduced stress. Urban Ecosystems, 9: 5–12.
Dwyer, J. F. & Bednarz, J. C. 2011. Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus). In: Poole, A. (ed.). The birds of North America online. Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/146 (access on 23 April 2013).
Dwyer, J. F. & Mannan, W. 2007. Preventing raptor electrocutions in an urban environment. Journal of Raptor Research, 41: 259–267.
Fenton, M. B. & Fleming, T. H. 1976. Ecological interactions between bats and nocturnal birds. Biotropica, 8: 104–110.
Figueroa, R. A. R. & González-Acuña, D. 2006. Prey of the Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) in a suburban area of southern Chile. Journal of Raptor Research, 40: 164–168.
Gómez de Silva, H.; Oliveras de Ita, A. & Medellín, R. A. 2005. Vertebrados superiores exóticos en México: Diversidad, distribución y efectos potenciales. Parabuteo unicinctus. México, D.F.: Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, bases de datos SNIB-CONABIO (Proyecto U020).
Grimm, N. B.; Faeth, S. H.; Golubiewski, N. E.; Redman, C. L.; Wu, J.; Bai, X. & Briggs, J. M. 2008. Global change and the ecology of cities. Science, 319: 756.
Jiménez, J. E. & Jaksic, F. M. 1993. Observations on the comparative behavioral ecology of Harris’ Hawk in central Chile. Journal of Raptor Research, 27: 143–148.
McKinney, M. L. 2008. Effects of urbanization on species richness: A review of plants and animals. Urban Ecosystems, 11: 161–176.
Pache, P. H. 1974. Notes on prey and reproductive biology of Harris’ Hawk in southeastern New Mexico. Wilson Bulletin 86: 72–74.
Palomino, D. & Carrascal, L. M. 2007. Habitat associations of a raptor community in a mosaic landscape of Central Spain under urban development. Landscape and Urban Planning, 83: 268–274.
Pavez, E. F.; Lobos, G. A. & Jaksic, F. M. 2010. Long-term changes in landscape and in small mammal and raptor assemblages in central Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, 83: 99–111.
Salvador, S. A. 2012. Dieta del Gavilán mixto (Parabuteo u. unicinctus) en Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina. Nuestras Aves, 57: 21–23.
Speakman, J. R. 1991. The impact of predation by birds on bat populations in the British Isles. Mammal Review, 21: 123–142.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Ortega-Álvarez, R., Calderón-Parra, R. Hunting the unexpected: Harris’s Hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) preying on bats in a Neotropical megacity. Rev. Bras. Ornitol. 22, 297–299 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03544264
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03544264