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An assessment of radio telemetry for monitoring shorebird chick survival and causes of mortality

journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-01, 00:00 authored by Daniel Lees, Tom Schmidt, Craig ShermanCraig Sherman, Grainne S Maguire, Peter Dann, Glenn Ehmke, Mike WestonMike Weston
Context Monitoring survival of free-living precocial avian young is critical for population management, but difficult to achieve. Perhaps the most promising technique available to track survival is the deployment of devices such as radio-transmitters or data loggers, which allow for tracking of the individuals.
Aims To understand if the deployment of radio-transmitters or the process of radio-tracking negatively impact chick survival by analysing survival of tagged chicks.
Methods Fifty masked lapwing (Vanellus miles), 42 red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus) and 27 hooded plover (Thinornis cucullatus) chicks were radio-tracked. Mortality between tagged and untagged chicks within broods was compared to examine whether radio-telemetry influenced chick survival.
Key results There was no statistically significant difference in survival between chicks with and without radio-transmitters. Radio-transmitters enabled the determination of cause of death for 0–28% of radio-tagged chicks.
Conclusion The survival of shorebird chicks does not appear to be affected by attachment of transmitters.
ImplicationsRadio-tracking remains a promising way of studying the movement and survival of shorebird chicks, and is helpful but not reliable for assigning the cause of mortality.

History

Journal

Wildlife research

Volume

46

Issue

7

Pagination

622 - 627

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Location

Clayton, Vic.

ISSN

1035-3712

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2019, CSIRO

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