The microsatellite analysis of DNA plays an important role in studying the population genetics such as population structure, genetic variability and diversity, phylogenetic relationships of wild population of endanger...The microsatellite analysis of DNA plays an important role in studying the population genetics such as population structure, genetic variability and diversity, phylogenetic relationships of wild population of endangered species. The main aim of this study was the estimation of ten microsatellite markers variability in the F. cherrug and F. peregrinus populations. We investigated genetic diversity and structure of populations by using non-invasive genetic identification of individuals to characterize populations of raptors living in the captivity and wild in the Czech Republic during the breeding seasons 2009 and 2010. Within Falco cherrug, significant moderate genetic differentiation （FsT） was observed between Falco cherrug wild and captive. This means that there could be a little differentiation between the wild and the captive populations caused by Falco cherrug subspecies origin or hybridization in the captivity. The absence of significant genetic differentiation between Falco peregrinus wild and captive may be caused by the influence of reintroduction the captive populations in the past. Whereas one breeding population ofFalco peregrinus （Kokorinsko2 2010） was clustered by UPGMA dendrogram into the individual group, we assumed this population like independent, maybe not influenced by other groups. Moreover, a larger sample size would be necessary to confirm the hypothesis.展开更多
This paper presented a novel tinny motion capture system for measuring bird posture based on inertial and magnetic measurement units that are made up of micromachined gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers. Mul...This paper presented a novel tinny motion capture system for measuring bird posture based on inertial and magnetic measurement units that are made up of micromachined gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers. Multiple quaternion-based extended Kalman filters were implemented to estimate the absolute orientations to achieve high accuracy.Under the guidance of ornithology experts, the extending/contracting motions and flapping cycles were recorded using the developed motion capture system, and the orientation of each bone was also analyzed. The captured flapping gesture of the Falco peregrinus is crucial to the motion database of raptors as well as the bionic design.展开更多
The Red-footed Falcon(Falco vespertinus)is a species of high international conservation interest.We analyzed its hunting behavior at the two largest colonies in Italy during the nestling period.Using accurate data-log...The Red-footed Falcon(Falco vespertinus)is a species of high international conservation interest.We analyzed its hunting behavior at the two largest colonies in Italy during the nestling period.Using accurate data-loggers,we tracked three adult Red-footed Falcons in June and July,2019 and collected 4703 GPS points.We detected clear patterns of hovering and perching activity(HPA)in both time and space.HPA occupied one-third of the Red-footed Falcons’day,and showed two peaks just after sunrise(between 35 and 40%of the monitoring time)and just before sunset(50‒60%)in both June and July,and minimum(20-30%)at night and during the hottest time interval(10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.).Almost 40%of HPA occurred within 50 m from nests.Our findings,although preliminary,have important implications for the conservation of these two colonies that are located within two Natura 2000 sites.The detected spatio-temporal patterns of Red-footed Falcons’hunting behavior suggests the creation of two nested protection belts:the inner one is a narrow belt(up to 50 m from the two rows of trees that host the two colonies)with integral conservation,and hopefully increase the alfalfa crops and fallow land,and the outer belt(50 m-2 km)with optimized agricultural activities.展开更多
Raptors can change the shape and area of their wings to an exceptional degree in a fast and efficient manner,surpassing other birds,insects,or bats.Some researchers have focused on the functional properties of muscle ...Raptors can change the shape and area of their wings to an exceptional degree in a fast and efficient manner,surpassing other birds,insects,or bats.Some researchers have focused on the functional properties of muscle skeletons,mechanics,and flapping robot design.However,the wing motion of the birds of prey has not been measured quantitatively,and synthetic bionic wings with morphing abilities similar to raptors are far from reality.Therefore,in the current study,a 3D suspension system for holding bird carcasses was designed and fabricated to fasten the wings of Falco Peregrinus with a series of morphing postures.Subsequently,the wing skeleton of the falcon was scanned during extending motions using the computed tomography(CT)approach to obtain three consecutive poses.Subsequently,the skeleton was reconstructed to identify the contribution of the forelimb bones to the extending/folding motions.Inspired by these findings,we propose a simple mechanical model with four bones to form a wing-morphing mechanism using the proposed pose optimisation method.Finally,a bionic wing mechanism was implemented to imitate the motion of the falcon wing—divided into inner and outer wings with folding and twisting motions.The results show that the proposed four-bar mechanism can track bone motion paths with high fidelity.展开更多
Lesser kestrels Falco naumanni are migratory central-place foragers that breed in dynamic arable landscapes. After arriving from migration, kestrels have no knowledge of the distribution of crops, and consequently pre...Lesser kestrels Falco naumanni are migratory central-place foragers that breed in dynamic arable landscapes. After arriving from migration, kestrels have no knowledge of the distribution of crops, and consequently prey, around their colony. The energy demand of pairs increases as breeding season progresses, but at the same time prey abundance, and their knowledge on prey distribution, also increases. Wind can have a strong influence on flight cost and kestrels should try to reduce energy expendi- ture when possible. When prey abundance is low, kestrels have little knowledge of prey distribution, and pairs have no chicks, they could reduce foraging flight cost by leaving the colony with tailwinds. When prey is abundant, knowledge on prey distribu- tion has increased, and chick demand is high, kestrels should fly to the most favorable foraging patches. We analyzed foraging trips directions in a lesser kestrel colony along the breeding season and in relation to wind speed and direction. We recorded 664 foraging trips from 19 individuals using GPS-dataloggers. We found that outward flights direction changed from uniform to a concentrated distribution along the season, as prey abundance and individual experience increased. We also found a temporal trend in the angular difference between outward flights and wind directions, with low values early in the season and then increa- sing as expected, but again low values at the end, contrary to expectation. Results suggest changes in kestrels foraging strategy along the season in relation to wind. Kestrels depart more with tailwinds in exploratory flights early in the season, while there is a spurious coincidence in direction to preferred foraging patches and dominant wind direction at the end [Current Zoology 60 （5）： 604-615, 2014].展开更多
Migratory connectivity describes the linkage between breeding and nonbreeding sites,having major ecological implications in birds:1 season influence the success of an individual or a population in the following season...Migratory connectivity describes the linkage between breeding and nonbreeding sites,having major ecological implications in birds:1 season influence the success of an individual or a population in the following season.Most studies on migratory connectivity have used large-scale approaches,often considering regional populations,but fine-scale studies are also necessary to understand colony connectivity.The lesser kestrel Falco naumanni,an insectivorous migratory raptor which form colonies during the breeding period,was considered to have strong connectivity based on regional populations.However,no small-scale studies on migratory connectivity have been conducted.Therefore,we GPS(Global Positioning System)-tracked 40 adult lesser kestrels from 15 different Spanish breeding colonies,estimating the overlap index between home ranges and the distance between their centroids.It was found that lesser kestrels from the same breeding colony placed their nonbreeding areas at 347±281 km(mean±standard deviation)away from each other(range=23-990),and their home ranges over-lapped by 38.4±23.6%.No differences between intra-colony and inter-colony metrics were found,which suggests that lesser kestrels from the same breeding cluster do not overwinter together,but they spread out and mixed independently of the colony belonging throughout the nonbreeding range of the species.Uitimately,this study highlights the importance of performing connectivity studies using fine-scale approaches.展开更多
Background:There is increasing interest in evaluating home-range overlap(or,otherwise,segregation)between bird species,and between or within bird populations,to inform spatial planning.So far,studies of home-range ove...Background:There is increasing interest in evaluating home-range overlap(or,otherwise,segregation)between bird species,and between or within bird populations,to inform spatial planning.So far,studies of home-range overlap typically make use of comparisons between pairs of individuals,populations or species,and return a matrix of pairwise overlaps(e.g.,percent overlaps).However,when the number of individuals,populations or species to be compared is elevated,an overlarge overlap matrix is difficult to interpret from an ecological viewpoint.Methods:We propose here a new,conceptually simple and computationally efficient index(general overlap index;GOI)for the ready computation within GIS of home range overlap of an arbitrarily large number(i.e.,n≥2)of individuals,populations or species.Whatever the number of home ranges to be compared,GOI always returns a single score between 0 and 100.As a case study,we applied our index to 24,074 GPS points of 10 Lesser Kestrels(Falco naumanni)in order to estimate within-colony and between-colony overlaps in two neighboring colonies in Southern Italy.Results:Within-colony overlap was elevated for both colonies(96.41%at Cassano delle Murge,n=5 individuals;81.38%at Santeramo in Colle,n=5 individuals),while between-colony overlap was low(19.12%;n=2 colonies)and,after a randomization procedure,more spatially-segregated than expected by chance.Conclusions:Modern biotelemetry offers huge amounts of data describing the space use of animal species.The use of intuitive and straightforward indices,like GOI,can be useful to promptly extract ecological information from such an amount of data(e.g.detecting change in space use over successive years,evaluating the reliability of various home-range estimators).展开更多
The European Union （EU） Wild Birds Directive recognises that the most serious threats to wild birds＇ conservation in Europe are habitat loss and degradation, and hence, habitats of threatened and migratory species ...The European Union （EU） Wild Birds Directive recognises that the most serious threats to wild birds＇ conservation in Europe are habitat loss and degradation, and hence, habitats of threatened and migratory species must be protected with the establishment of the network of the special protection areas （SPAs） for migratory and endangered bird species in the EU member states. The major European population of the lesser kestrel Falco naumanni, a migratory falcon listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive, occurs in low-input farming systems in the Mediterranean basin, including Greece. The aim of this study was to identify foraging habitats of lesser kestrels and relate them to the delimited SPAs in the agro-ecosystems of Greece, where the stronghold of the species population for Greece occurs. Foraging habitat preferences were assessed using Poisson regression models （PRMs）. SPAs were examined on whether they can effectively protect foraging habitats for breeding lesser kestrels in the study area. Foraging lesser kestrel abundance was positively associated with grasslands and non-irrigated land （dry cereals）, and negatively associated with irrigated land （wet cotton）, scrubland and woodland. Electricity facilities were used as foraging perches by lesser kestrels. The current SPAs cover a small percentage of the species＇ foraging sites and cannot be considered coherent enough to support and protect the foraging habitats of lesser kestrels and other priority species in the agro-ecosystems of the study area. Proposals for effective conservation of low-input farming systems, supporting priority species, are also presented.展开更多
文摘The microsatellite analysis of DNA plays an important role in studying the population genetics such as population structure, genetic variability and diversity, phylogenetic relationships of wild population of endangered species. The main aim of this study was the estimation of ten microsatellite markers variability in the F. cherrug and F. peregrinus populations. We investigated genetic diversity and structure of populations by using non-invasive genetic identification of individuals to characterize populations of raptors living in the captivity and wild in the Czech Republic during the breeding seasons 2009 and 2010. Within Falco cherrug, significant moderate genetic differentiation （FsT） was observed between Falco cherrug wild and captive. This means that there could be a little differentiation between the wild and the captive populations caused by Falco cherrug subspecies origin or hybridization in the captivity. The absence of significant genetic differentiation between Falco peregrinus wild and captive may be caused by the influence of reintroduction the captive populations in the past. Whereas one breeding population ofFalco peregrinus （Kokorinsko2 2010） was clustered by UPGMA dendrogram into the individual group, we assumed this population like independent, maybe not influenced by other groups. Moreover, a larger sample size would be necessary to confirm the hypothesis.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.52175279 and 51705459)the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province,China (Grant No.LY20E050022)the Key Research and Development Projects of Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Department (Grant No.2021C03122)。
文摘This paper presented a novel tinny motion capture system for measuring bird posture based on inertial and magnetic measurement units that are made up of micromachined gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers. Multiple quaternion-based extended Kalman filters were implemented to estimate the absolute orientations to achieve high accuracy.Under the guidance of ornithology experts, the extending/contracting motions and flapping cycles were recorded using the developed motion capture system, and the orientation of each bone was also analyzed. The captured flapping gesture of the Falco peregrinus is crucial to the motion database of raptors as well as the bionic design.
文摘The Red-footed Falcon(Falco vespertinus)is a species of high international conservation interest.We analyzed its hunting behavior at the two largest colonies in Italy during the nestling period.Using accurate data-loggers,we tracked three adult Red-footed Falcons in June and July,2019 and collected 4703 GPS points.We detected clear patterns of hovering and perching activity(HPA)in both time and space.HPA occupied one-third of the Red-footed Falcons’day,and showed two peaks just after sunrise(between 35 and 40%of the monitoring time)and just before sunset(50‒60%)in both June and July,and minimum(20-30%)at night and during the hottest time interval(10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.).Almost 40%of HPA occurred within 50 m from nests.Our findings,although preliminary,have important implications for the conservation of these two colonies that are located within two Natura 2000 sites.The detected spatio-temporal patterns of Red-footed Falcons’hunting behavior suggests the creation of two nested protection belts:the inner one is a narrow belt(up to 50 m from the two rows of trees that host the two colonies)with integral conservation,and hopefully increase the alfalfa crops and fallow land,and the outer belt(50 m-2 km)with optimized agricultural activities.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(52175279,51705459)Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province(LY20E050022).
文摘Raptors can change the shape and area of their wings to an exceptional degree in a fast and efficient manner,surpassing other birds,insects,or bats.Some researchers have focused on the functional properties of muscle skeletons,mechanics,and flapping robot design.However,the wing motion of the birds of prey has not been measured quantitatively,and synthetic bionic wings with morphing abilities similar to raptors are far from reality.Therefore,in the current study,a 3D suspension system for holding bird carcasses was designed and fabricated to fasten the wings of Falco Peregrinus with a series of morphing postures.Subsequently,the wing skeleton of the falcon was scanned during extending motions using the computed tomography(CT)approach to obtain three consecutive poses.Subsequently,the skeleton was reconstructed to identify the contribution of the forelimb bones to the extending/folding motions.Inspired by these findings,we propose a simple mechanical model with four bones to form a wing-morphing mechanism using the proposed pose optimisation method.Finally,a bionic wing mechanism was implemented to imitate the motion of the falcon wing—divided into inner and outer wings with folding and twisting motions.The results show that the proposed four-bar mechanism can track bone motion paths with high fidelity.
文摘Lesser kestrels Falco naumanni are migratory central-place foragers that breed in dynamic arable landscapes. After arriving from migration, kestrels have no knowledge of the distribution of crops, and consequently prey, around their colony. The energy demand of pairs increases as breeding season progresses, but at the same time prey abundance, and their knowledge on prey distribution, also increases. Wind can have a strong influence on flight cost and kestrels should try to reduce energy expendi- ture when possible. When prey abundance is low, kestrels have little knowledge of prey distribution, and pairs have no chicks, they could reduce foraging flight cost by leaving the colony with tailwinds. When prey is abundant, knowledge on prey distribu- tion has increased, and chick demand is high, kestrels should fly to the most favorable foraging patches. We analyzed foraging trips directions in a lesser kestrel colony along the breeding season and in relation to wind speed and direction. We recorded 664 foraging trips from 19 individuals using GPS-dataloggers. We found that outward flights direction changed from uniform to a concentrated distribution along the season, as prey abundance and individual experience increased. We also found a temporal trend in the angular difference between outward flights and wind directions, with low values early in the season and then increa- sing as expected, but again low values at the end, contrary to expectation. Results suggest changes in kestrels foraging strategy along the season in relation to wind. Kestrels depart more with tailwinds in exploratory flights early in the season, while there is a spurious coincidence in direction to preferred foraging patches and dominant wind direction at the end [Current Zoology 60 （5）： 604-615, 2014].
基金Funding for lesser kestrels tagging was provided by Iberdrola Espana Foundation(MIGRA program of SEO/BirdLife),GREFA(supported by Ministerio para la Transicion Ecologica y Reto Demografico,Junta de Castilla-La Mancha and SEITT,s.a.),Cordoba Zoo,Alcala de Henares Municipality,and Global Nature Foundation within the LIFE Project"Steppe Farming"(LIFE15417NAT/ES/000734)Lina Lopez-Ricaurte has received financial support through the"La Caixa"INPhINIT Fellowship Grant for Doctoral studies at Spanish Research Centres of Excellence,"La Caixa"Banking Foundation,Barcelona,Spain.In Andalucia tags were funded byKESTRELS MOVE"project(ref:CGL201679249 P)(AEI/FEDER,UE)+1 种基金At the time of analyses and writing,this study was supported by projects MERCURIO(ref:PID2020-421115793GB)(AEI/FEDER,UE)SUMHAL European Regional Development Fund4(ref:LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-13)(MICINN,POPE 2014-2020).
文摘Migratory connectivity describes the linkage between breeding and nonbreeding sites,having major ecological implications in birds:1 season influence the success of an individual or a population in the following season.Most studies on migratory connectivity have used large-scale approaches,often considering regional populations,but fine-scale studies are also necessary to understand colony connectivity.The lesser kestrel Falco naumanni,an insectivorous migratory raptor which form colonies during the breeding period,was considered to have strong connectivity based on regional populations.However,no small-scale studies on migratory connectivity have been conducted.Therefore,we GPS(Global Positioning System)-tracked 40 adult lesser kestrels from 15 different Spanish breeding colonies,estimating the overlap index between home ranges and the distance between their centroids.It was found that lesser kestrels from the same breeding colony placed their nonbreeding areas at 347±281 km(mean±standard deviation)away from each other(range=23-990),and their home ranges over-lapped by 38.4±23.6%.No differences between intra-colony and inter-colony metrics were found,which suggests that lesser kestrels from the same breeding cluster do not overwinter together,but they spread out and mixed independently of the colony belonging throughout the nonbreeding range of the species.Uitimately,this study highlights the importance of performing connectivity studies using fine-scale approaches.
基金supported by LIPU-UK(GIS and modelling work)by the Alta Murgia National Park(biotelemetry and field work)。
文摘Background:There is increasing interest in evaluating home-range overlap(or,otherwise,segregation)between bird species,and between or within bird populations,to inform spatial planning.So far,studies of home-range overlap typically make use of comparisons between pairs of individuals,populations or species,and return a matrix of pairwise overlaps(e.g.,percent overlaps).However,when the number of individuals,populations or species to be compared is elevated,an overlarge overlap matrix is difficult to interpret from an ecological viewpoint.Methods:We propose here a new,conceptually simple and computationally efficient index(general overlap index;GOI)for the ready computation within GIS of home range overlap of an arbitrarily large number(i.e.,n≥2)of individuals,populations or species.Whatever the number of home ranges to be compared,GOI always returns a single score between 0 and 100.As a case study,we applied our index to 24,074 GPS points of 10 Lesser Kestrels(Falco naumanni)in order to estimate within-colony and between-colony overlaps in two neighboring colonies in Southern Italy.Results:Within-colony overlap was elevated for both colonies(96.41%at Cassano delle Murge,n=5 individuals;81.38%at Santeramo in Colle,n=5 individuals),while between-colony overlap was low(19.12%;n=2 colonies)and,after a randomization procedure,more spatially-segregated than expected by chance.Conclusions:Modern biotelemetry offers huge amounts of data describing the space use of animal species.The use of intuitive and straightforward indices,like GOI,can be useful to promptly extract ecological information from such an amount of data(e.g.detecting change in space use over successive years,evaluating the reliability of various home-range estimators).
文摘The European Union （EU） Wild Birds Directive recognises that the most serious threats to wild birds＇ conservation in Europe are habitat loss and degradation, and hence, habitats of threatened and migratory species must be protected with the establishment of the network of the special protection areas （SPAs） for migratory and endangered bird species in the EU member states. The major European population of the lesser kestrel Falco naumanni, a migratory falcon listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive, occurs in low-input farming systems in the Mediterranean basin, including Greece. The aim of this study was to identify foraging habitats of lesser kestrels and relate them to the delimited SPAs in the agro-ecosystems of Greece, where the stronghold of the species population for Greece occurs. Foraging habitat preferences were assessed using Poisson regression models （PRMs）. SPAs were examined on whether they can effectively protect foraging habitats for breeding lesser kestrels in the study area. Foraging lesser kestrel abundance was positively associated with grasslands and non-irrigated land （dry cereals）, and negatively associated with irrigated land （wet cotton）, scrubland and woodland. Electricity facilities were used as foraging perches by lesser kestrels. The current SPAs cover a small percentage of the species＇ foraging sites and cannot be considered coherent enough to support and protect the foraging habitats of lesser kestrels and other priority species in the agro-ecosystems of the study area. Proposals for effective conservation of low-input farming systems, supporting priority species, are also presented.
