Environmental drivers of variability in the movement ecology of turkey vultures (<i>Cathartes aura</i>) in North and South America

DOI Web Site Web Site 1 Citations
  • Somayeh Dodge
    Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, 475 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  • Gil Bohrer
    Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, 475 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  • Keith Bildstein
    Acopian Center for Conservation Learning, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, 410 Summer Valley Road, Orwigsburg, PA 17961, USA
  • Sarah C. Davidson
    Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, 475 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  • Rolf Weinzierl
    Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
  • Marc J. Bechard
    Raptor Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA
  • David Barber
    Acopian Center for Conservation Learning, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, 410 Summer Valley Road, Orwigsburg, PA 17961, USA
  • Roland Kays
    NC Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA
  • David Brandes
    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Acopian Engineering Center, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA
  • Jiawei Han
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
  • Martin Wikelski
    Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany

Description

<jats:p>Variation is key to the adaptability of species and their ability to survive changes to the Earth's climate and habitats. Plasticity in movement strategies allows a species to better track spatial dynamics of habitat quality. We describe the mechanisms that shape the movement of a long-distance migrant bird (turkey vulture,<jats:italic>Cathartes aura</jats:italic>) across two continents using satellite tracking coupled with remote-sensing science. Using nearly 10 years of data from 24 satellite-tracked vultures in four distinct populations, we describe an enormous amount of variation in their movement patterns. We related vulture movement to environmental conditions and found important correlations explaining how far they need to move to find food (indexed by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and how fast they can move based on the prevalence of thermals and temperature. We conclude that the extensive variability in the movement ecology of turkey vultures, facilitated by their energetically efficient thermal soaring, suggests that this species is likely to do well across periods of modest climate change. The large scale and sample sizes needed for such analysis in a widespread migrant emphasizes the need for integrated and collaborative efforts to obtain tracking data and for policies, tools and open datasets to encourage such collaborations and data sharing.</jats:p>

Journal

Citations (1)*help

See more

Report a problem

Back to top