Nest spacing not human occurrence influence the breeding of Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) in a peri-urban reserve

SOLARO, C.; SARASOLA, J.H.

EMU

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Lugar: Collingwood; Año: 2015 vol. 115 p. 72 - 75

0158-4197

Natural environments have been greatly transformed by humans and the adaptations of species to this pressure vary. In human-dominated environments, birds may adopt behaviours that enable them to adjust to these novel habitats. We analysed the reproductive ecology of a common and human-tolerant bird of prey, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango), in a peri-urban zone in central Argentina. We examined the effects of different levels of human occurrence on caracara reproduction. A total of 34 nests were monitored. Nests were spatially arranged into dense colonies with a random distribution of nests within the colony. The reproductive output of Chimango Caracaras was not affected at the local scale (colony site) or at the within-colony scale (distance to neighbouring nests) by any level of human occurrence. However, the lower reproductive success in our study in comparison with that observed in natural habitats suggests that this raptor species can be negatively affected by anthropogenic factors at a very local scale (i.e. a breeding colony at a peri-urban area) despite its behavioural plasticity and tolerance to human presence.