Birds of prey: biology and conservation in the XXI century

NEGRO, J.J.; SARASOLA, J.H.; GRANDE, J.M.

Springer International Publishing

Año: 2018 p. 530

978-3-319-73744-7

Birds of prey have fascinated humans through time perhaps more than any other group of birds. Proof of the respect, admiration, and veneration that raptors gained in ancient but also in modern human civilizations is found in the diversity of symbolisms, from hieroglyphs to country flags and emblems, condensing the ideals that raptors transmitted to these cultures, such as power, vitality, sacredness, and nobility. From the eighteenth century to modern societies, however, and although raptors are still admired as singular and as the most majestic species among birds, some divorce occurred with part of the society, and a majority of raptor species have suffered and still suffer from active human persecution.From an ecological perspective, birds of prey are the main avian top predators found in almost all mainland terrestrial ecosystems all around the world, playing a key role in regulating prey populations and structuring natural communities. However, such features also make raptors very susceptible to environmental changes, being species that have suffered the most from the impacts of human modifications of natural habitats. Changes, by the way that are jeopardizing biodiversity conservation at an unprecedented global scale. The industrial revolution beginning in the mid-nineteenth century allowed the development of technical advances that lay the foundations for the current well-being of modern societies, including energy and food production. However, these advances, along with the expansion of communication and transportation infrastructures, needed to fulfill the increasing demands of a growing world human population. This resulted in the expansion of agricultural areas and urban sprawl, along with all the infrastructures needed for the supply of food, water, and energy, and thus permitted the transformation of enormous areas of natural habitats and the exploitation of natural resources at rates never recorded before. In this context, many raptor species around the world have become severely threatened and their populations reduced in numbers to levels that compromise their conservation.This book is aimed to provide readers, either students, researchers, or plain raptor enthusiasts, with the most exhaustive up-to-date review of topics related to raptor biology and conservation. Even though we are facing a severe environmental crisis, new technologies and accumulated knowledge have permitted the development of a number of tools that may traduce in the improvement of methodologies applied in the field of avian biology and conservation. In this sense, this book intends to gather exhaustive revisions of some of the latest technical and methodological advances on the study of raptors. Most of these advances were unforeseen even just a few years ago and currently represent important research opportunities for the study of birds of prey. In addition, novel ways in which raptors are threatened by human activities are recorded in conjunction with alternatives to mitigate such impacts.This book, focused mainly in diurnal raptors but with some references and examples to nocturnal ones in general topics, is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with some of the most important aspects on the general biology and ecology of raptors: from phylogeny and taxonomy to breeding, behavioral ecology, migration, and dispersion, including a review of one of the particular functions that birds of prey play in natural communities as dispersers of plant seeds.The second section is concerned with the interactions between raptors and humans, human activities, and the resulting human-modified environments. In this section, chapters cover issues from the protagonism of diurnal raptors since prehistory, in ancient human civilizations and up to the present day. This section deals, for instance, with the main threats that raptors currently face when living in urban and human-altered environments. This section also includes a review of the state of the art in some of the most important anthropogenic threats for raptors, such as avian electrocution in powerlines and lead poisoning.The third and last section is concerned with raptor conservation worldwide. Species conservation is strongly influenced by their particular habits and behavior, but also by the singularities of the ecosystems or regions they live in. For that reason, chapters in this part include both biogeographical and taxonomical approaches. Thus, some particular groups, such as the Old World vultures, are analyzed in detail, while biogeographical-based assessments include some of the regions holding a greater diversity of raptors and also some of the most threatened species. Two of the chapters, as an example, deal with the development of novel tools applied to the study, monitoring, and hands-on conservation of birds of prey, including the latest available molecular techniques in conservation genetics, or the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for nest surveying minimizing disturbance.As editors, we wish to acknowledge and heartily thank all our coauthors in this book. Their expertise and love for raptors have made possible this joint effort with contributions from all over the world. If this book helps, even minimally, to provide directions for preserving raptors and their habitats, our goals when we embarked in this endeavor will be fulfilled.