Red fox trap success is correlated with piping plover chick survival
-
Published:2023-12-20
Issue:
Volume:
Page:
-
ISSN:0022-541X
-
Container-title:The Journal of Wildlife Management
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:J Wildl Manag
Author:
Robinson Samantha G.1,
Black Kathleen M.1,
Catlin Daniel H.1ORCID,
Wails Christy N.1,
Karpanty Sarah M.1,
Bellman Henrietta1,
Oliver Katie W.1,
Ritter Shannon J.1,
Fraser James D.1
Affiliation:
1. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Virginia Tech Blacksburg VA 24061 USA
Abstract
AbstractPredation management is an important component of managing species of conservation concern. The piping plover (Charadrius melodus; plover), a disturbance‐dependent and conservation‐reliant shorebird that nests on sandy beaches and barrier islands on the Atlantic Coast, was listed under the United States Endangered Species Act in 1986, with habitat loss and predation stated as key causes of its decline. We evaluated the relationship between a suite of predators and plover chick survival from 2015–2018. We used a camera grid to establish indices of the abundance of 3 known chick predators: red fox (Vulpes vulpes), raccoon (Procyon lotor), and domestic cat. We used camera detections in a survival model to assess potential relationships between predator species detection and plover chick survival. Plover chick survival was negatively related with red fox detection, but not with detection of the other 2 predators. In addition to the correlation with red fox detections, chick survival was negatively related to high plover nesting density. Our results suggest that red foxes were predators of piping plover chicks during our study, likely augmented by other density‐dependent sources of mortality. Targeted predator management could aid in conservation of piping plovers in this system as a short‐term solution, but long‐term recovery plans must also address habitat limitation.
Funder
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Subject
Nature and Landscape Conservation,Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Nature and Landscape Conservation,Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference36 articles.
1. Effects of predator control on behaviour of an apex predator and indirect consequences for mesopredator suppression;Brook L. A.;Journal of Animal Ecology,2012
2. Effect of great-horned owl trapping on chick survival in piping plovers
3. Demographic responses of piping plovers to habitat creation on the Missouri river