Space use and pesticide exposure risk of male burrowing owls in an agricultural landscape

作者：Gervais JA^*; Rosenberg DK; Anthony RG

来源：Journal of Wildlife Management, 2003, 67(1): 155-164.

DOI：10.2307/3803071

• agricultural habitat
• Athene cunicularia
• burrowing owls
• California
• habitat selection
• home range
• pesticide exposure
• radiotelemetry

We estimated home-range size and habitat selection in a population of burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) living within an agricultural landscape in the Central Valley of California, USA, in 1998 and 1999. We modeled home-range size and habitat selection of breeding male owls (n = 33) as a function of biological and physical factors. Biological factors included number of young fledged and diet, and physical factors included cover-type composition around the nest. We also examined patterns of space use in conjunction with agricultural pesticide application records for evidence of secondary poisoning risk to the owls. Owl home ranges varied in size within (but not between) years, and not in conjunction with any of the biological factors we measured. Foraging versus random locations were differentiated most strongly by distance from the nest, with 80% of nocturnal foraging observations falling within 600 m of the nest burrow. No single cover type was selected when distance to nest was also included in the model. Owls did use agricultural fields recently treated with pesticides, although we did not find evidence of owls selectively foraging in these fields.

• 出版日期2003-1