Constraints on raptor distribution at the southwestern boundary of the Palaearctic: implications for conservation

Tellería, José Luis; Fandos, Guillermo; Tena, Elena; Carbonell, Roberto; Onrubia, Alejandro; Qninba, Abdeljebbar; Ramírez, Álvaro

doi:10.1007/s10531-018-1677-9

Original Paper
Published: 04 December 2018

Constraints on raptor distribution at the southwestern boundary of the Palaearctic: implications for conservation

José Luis Tellería ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6170-8860¹,
Guillermo Fandos¹,
Elena Tena¹,
Roberto Carbonell¹,
Alejandro Onrubia²,
Abdeljebbar Qninba³ &
Álvaro Ramírez¹

Biodiversity and Conservation volume 28, pages 603–619 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Populations at the far edges of their ranges tend to be scarce, and they are frequently of conservation concern. This paper examines the distribution of three raptors (Circaetus gallicus, Hieraaetus pennatus and Milvus migrans) at the southwestern boundary of their breeding range. We modelled species distribution to obtain habitat suitability indexes that were validated with extensive fieldwork in Morocco and Spain. Our results support a strong effect of habitat suitability and a bottleneck effect of the Strait of Gibraltar on raptor distribution. However, after controlling for these effects, the three species were scarcer in Morocco than in Spain. We did not find differences between the two countries in the number of power lines that are dangerous to raptors or in general impacts of agricultural intensification on bird populations (we assessed more farmland birds in Morocco). However, many more people (i.e., shepherds) were detected in Morocco, whose negative effect on raptors could explain the depletion of their populations. These transboundary differences are used to discuss the fate of these peripheral populations in a context of climate change and rural abandonment. They also highlight the need for strengthening raptor conservation around the Strait of Gibraltar, where a permanent flow of raptors converges throughout the year.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. J. de Lope, R. Pérez-Gomariz, A. Perry, S. Young and T. Santos for support with several aspects of this study. Three anonymous reviewers considerably improved an early version of this manuscript. This paper is a contribution to the projects CGL2011-22953/BOS and CGL2017-85637-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the UCM-Santander project PR26/16-20244.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain
José Luis Tellería, Guillermo Fandos, Elena Tena, Roberto Carbonell & Álvaro Ramírez
Fundación Migres, Tarifa, 11380, Cádiz, Spain
Alejandro Onrubia
Laboratoire de Géo-Biodiversité et Patrimoine Naturel (GEOBIO), Institut Scientifique, Mohammed V University, 10090, Agdal, Rabat, Morocco
Abdeljebbar Qninba

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José Luis Tellería
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Guillermo Fandos
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Elena Tena
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Roberto Carbonell
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Alejandro Onrubia
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Abdeljebbar Qninba
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Álvaro Ramírez
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Correspondence to José Luis Tellería.

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Communicated by Karen E. Hodges.

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Tellería, J.L., Fandos, G., Tena, E. et al. Constraints on raptor distribution at the southwestern boundary of the Palaearctic: implications for conservation. Biodivers Conserv 28, 603–619 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1677-9

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Received: 17 April 2018
Revised: 07 November 2018
Accepted: 29 November 2018
Published: 04 December 2018
Issue Date: 15 March 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1677-9

Keywords

Bottleneck effect
Habitat suitability
Human interference
Peripheral population
Species range
Transboundary difference