Abstract
Conservation efforts should be based on habitat models that identify areas of high quality and that are built at spatial scales that are ecologically relevant. In this study, we developed habitat models for the Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico to answer two questions: (1) are highly used habitats of high quality for shrikes in terms of individual fitness? and (2) what are the spatial scales of habitat associations relevant to this species? Our study area was Fort Bliss Army Reserve (New Mexico). Bird abundance was obtained from 10 min point counts conducted at forty-two 108 ha plots during a 3-year period. Measures of fitness were obtained by tracking a total of 73 nests over the 3 years. Habitat variables were measured at spatial scales ranging from broad to intermediate to local. We related habitat use and measures of fitness to habitat variables using Bayesian model averaging. We found a significant relationship between bird abundance and measures of fitness averaged across nesting birds in each plot (correlation up to 0.61). This suggests that measures of habitat use are indicative of habitat quality in the vicinity of Fort Bliss. Local- and intermediate-scale variables best explained shrike occurrence. Habitat variables were not related to any measures of fitness. A better understanding of the factors that limit individual bird fitness is therefore necessary to identify areas of high conservation value for this species.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the field assistants who collected data on Loggerhead Shrikes between 1996 and 1998. Support for conducting the remote sensing and statistical analysis was provided by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. Support for acquiring bird data was provided by the US Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program, the Environmental Division-Directorate of Public Works (Fort Bliss, Texas), USGS BRD Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, USGS BRD Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, the Department of Wildlife Ecology, and the Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison. We would like to thank Drs. David Mladenoff, Phil Townsend, and Monica Turner, as well as two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on the manuscript.
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St-Louis, V., Pidgeon, A.M., Clayton, M.K. et al. Habitat variables explain Loggerhead Shrike occurrence in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, but are poor correlates of fitness measures. Landscape Ecol 25, 643–654 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9451-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9451-8