Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Familiarity With Breeding Habitat Improves Daily Survival In Colonial Cliff Swallows, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Kathleen R. Brazeal Oct 2008

Familiarity With Breeding Habitat Improves Daily Survival In Colonial Cliff Swallows, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Kathleen R. Brazeal

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

One probable cost of dispersing to a new breeding habitat is unfamiliarity with local conditions such as the whereabouts of food or the habits of local predators, and consequently immigrants may have lower probabilities of survival than more experienced residents. Within a breeding season, estimated daily survival probabilities of cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, at colonies in southwestern Nebraska, USA, were highest for birds that had always nested at the same site, followed by those for birds that had nested there in some (but not all) past years. Daily survival probabilities were lowest for birds that were naive immigrants to …


Winter Habitat Selection By A Reintroduced Population Of Migratory Whooping Cranes: Emerging Patterns And Implications For The Future, Lara E. A. Fondow Jan 2008

Winter Habitat Selection By A Reintroduced Population Of Migratory Whooping Cranes: Emerging Patterns And Implications For The Future, Lara E. A. Fondow

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

In an effort to model the reintroduced eastern migratory population of whooping cranes (Grus americana) after the remaining wild whooping crane population, biologists selected the salt marshes of Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Florida as the winter release site for ultra-light led juvenile cranes due to its similarities to Aransas NWR, Texas. Releases began in the fall of 2001, and the 3 subsequent winter seasons have afforded the opportunity to observe whether habitat selection by these whooping cranes would be influenced by the pre-selection of salt marsh. Intensive monitoring efforts each winter have revealed a dominant early-winter pattern. …


Sandhill Crane Nest Habitat Selection And Factors Affecting Nest Success In Northwestern Minnesota, Stephen J. Maxson, John R. Fieberg, Michael R. Riggs Jan 2008

Sandhill Crane Nest Habitat Selection And Factors Affecting Nest Success In Northwestern Minnesota, Stephen J. Maxson, John R. Fieberg, Michael R. Riggs

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

We studied 62 greater sandhill crane (Grus canadensis tabida) nests in northwestern Minnesota during 1989-1991 to document nest habitat use and selection, nest success, and factors associated with nest success. We recorded 15 habitat variables at each nest and at a randomly selected site in the same wetland. Nests were in basins 0.01-601 ha (Median = 2.2 ha) and at water depths 0-35.7 cm (Median = 9.7 cm). Cattail (Typha sp.) was the dominant vegetation at 58.0% of nests while 21.0% were at sites dominated by phragmites (Phragmites australis). Conditional logistic regression models indicated …