Background: Ring wear and loss may have important consequences for mark-recapture studies that aim to estimate survival trends. Our study quantifies the rates of wear and loss from a long-running colour-ringing projec...Background: Ring wear and loss may have important consequences for mark-recapture studies that aim to estimate survival trends. Our study quantifies the rates of wear and loss from a long-running colour-ringing project of the Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) in the Netherlands. Methods: Our analysis included 8909 colour-ringed oystercatchers with 118,071 resightings, predominantly ringed and observed by citizen scientists. We quantified how ring wear and loss may vary with ring colour and age, and how this may impact resighting probabilities. We then determined how ring loss may impact survival estimates and resighting probabilities of mark-recapture models by simulating four scenarios of how citizen scientists may resight and report birds with lost colour rings. Results: Annual rates of colour ring loss averaged 2.5% compared with 1% for ring wear, but lost rings also had a higher reporting probability (31.2%) than worn rings (10.3%). Lost rings may not directly impact survival estimates since 50% of oystercatchers with lost rings could still be uniquely identified. Ring wear and loss rapidly increased between 10 and 15 years after ringing. Rates of ring loss were comparable amongst ring colours, but the wear rate appeared higher for red and white rings compared to other colours. Rates of ring wear and loss varied significantly amongst different regions in our study, which were characterised as having different habitat features. Differential rates of ring wear may have important implications for studies conducted over large geographical scales or of multiple species. Conclusions: Based on simulations of ring loss in our population, estimates of apparent survival may be 0.3–1.2% lower whilst the impact of ring wear was deemed even lower. We developed a table of recommendations containing advice for ring fitting, data collection, study design, and mark-recapture analyses, so that future colour-ringing studies can benefit from our experiences in collecting and analysing data of ring wear and loss through citizen science.展开更多
The analysis of bird ringing data often comes with some potential sources of error and bias,as ring wear and/or loss could affect mark-recapture analyses and produce erroneous estimates of survival.Furthermore,ring we...The analysis of bird ringing data often comes with some potential sources of error and bias,as ring wear and/or loss could affect mark-recapture analyses and produce erroneous estimates of survival.Furthermore,ring wear and loss rates may differ between and within species based on the habitat they use or the species’ life-history traits and behaviour as well as the type of the ring.In this study we use resighting data from a long-term double marking experiment to directly estimate the rate of colour-ring loss among different Dalmatian Pelican colonies over time,evaluate any possible factors that could contribute to differential ring loss and assess how it may bias the results of mark-resighting analyses.Based on 14,849 resightings from 1275 individuals and using multi-state continuous-time hidden Markov models(HMMs) we showed that probability of ring loss was markedly different among colonies,ranging from 0.10 to 0.42 within the first year of marking,whereas the cumulative probability of losing a ring after ten years ranged 0.64 to 0.99.These rates are among the highest estimated when compared to previous studies in waterbirds.Our approach assessing the intra-specific variance in ring loss provided several factors potentially involved,such as the use of glue and the fledgling age accuracy and we could further hypothesise the effect of environmental factors.Finally,our results showed that ring loss can be a significant challenge for the assessment of the species’ population dynamics using mark-recapture methods as survival was consistently underestimated when not accounting for ring loss and varied significantly among different colonies.展开更多
基金supported by the Applied and Engineering Sciences domain,TTW,which is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research(NWO)NWO-TTW Grant 14638co-funded by NAM,the Royal Netherlands Air Force,Birdlife Netherlands and Deltares
文摘Background: Ring wear and loss may have important consequences for mark-recapture studies that aim to estimate survival trends. Our study quantifies the rates of wear and loss from a long-running colour-ringing project of the Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) in the Netherlands. Methods: Our analysis included 8909 colour-ringed oystercatchers with 118,071 resightings, predominantly ringed and observed by citizen scientists. We quantified how ring wear and loss may vary with ring colour and age, and how this may impact resighting probabilities. We then determined how ring loss may impact survival estimates and resighting probabilities of mark-recapture models by simulating four scenarios of how citizen scientists may resight and report birds with lost colour rings. Results: Annual rates of colour ring loss averaged 2.5% compared with 1% for ring wear, but lost rings also had a higher reporting probability (31.2%) than worn rings (10.3%). Lost rings may not directly impact survival estimates since 50% of oystercatchers with lost rings could still be uniquely identified. Ring wear and loss rapidly increased between 10 and 15 years after ringing. Rates of ring loss were comparable amongst ring colours, but the wear rate appeared higher for red and white rings compared to other colours. Rates of ring wear and loss varied significantly amongst different regions in our study, which were characterised as having different habitat features. Differential rates of ring wear may have important implications for studies conducted over large geographical scales or of multiple species. Conclusions: Based on simulations of ring loss in our population, estimates of apparent survival may be 0.3–1.2% lower whilst the impact of ring wear was deemed even lower. We developed a table of recommendations containing advice for ring fitting, data collection, study design, and mark-recapture analyses, so that future colour-ringing studies can benefit from our experiences in collecting and analysing data of ring wear and loss through citizen science.
基金supported by MAVA Foundation and Tour du Valatsupported financially by the MAVA Foundationby the Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust (PONT)。
文摘The analysis of bird ringing data often comes with some potential sources of error and bias,as ring wear and/or loss could affect mark-recapture analyses and produce erroneous estimates of survival.Furthermore,ring wear and loss rates may differ between and within species based on the habitat they use or the species’ life-history traits and behaviour as well as the type of the ring.In this study we use resighting data from a long-term double marking experiment to directly estimate the rate of colour-ring loss among different Dalmatian Pelican colonies over time,evaluate any possible factors that could contribute to differential ring loss and assess how it may bias the results of mark-resighting analyses.Based on 14,849 resightings from 1275 individuals and using multi-state continuous-time hidden Markov models(HMMs) we showed that probability of ring loss was markedly different among colonies,ranging from 0.10 to 0.42 within the first year of marking,whereas the cumulative probability of losing a ring after ten years ranged 0.64 to 0.99.These rates are among the highest estimated when compared to previous studies in waterbirds.Our approach assessing the intra-specific variance in ring loss provided several factors potentially involved,such as the use of glue and the fledgling age accuracy and we could further hypothesise the effect of environmental factors.Finally,our results showed that ring loss can be a significant challenge for the assessment of the species’ population dynamics using mark-recapture methods as survival was consistently underestimated when not accounting for ring loss and varied significantly among different colonies.
