Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Page Klug | | Title | Interactions between grassland birds and their snake predators: The potential for conservation benefits or conflicts in the tallgrass prairie | | Affiliation | Kansas State University | | Authors | Page Klug, Kimberly With | | Keywords | Ecological traps, Grassland birds, Nest predation, Snakes, Tallgrass prairie | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Grassland management such as fire and grazing are necessary components of the tallgrass prairie, but the temporal and spatial pattern of current management differs greatly from the historical regime. Changes in the extent and frequency of grazing and fire may effectively degrade the Flint Hills, which is considered the last stronghold for the endangered tallgrass prairie. Grassland management alters habitat structure and influences birds and their nest predators. Management may be enhancing predation through habitat modification that simultaneously favors birds and snakes, creating “hotspots of predation risk” that pose an ecological trap to nesting songbirds (i.e. songbirds may be attracted to areas of the landscape that support high snake densities). We compare habitat between snake telemetric locations, successful bird nests, and unsuccessful bird nests to analyze if birds select nest sites to avoid snakes or if their nest site selection is increasing their chance of encounter with a predatory snake. We conducted the study at Konza Prairie Biological Station. Habitat heterogeneity at the local scale (within 30-m of nests and snake locations) is evaluated under the hypothesis that birds that overlap with the habitat use of snakes will suffer increased nest predation due to an increase of encounters with snakes. We radio-tracked Eastern Racers (Coluber constrictor) and Great Plains Ratsnakes (Pantherophis emoryi) to record habitat associated with snakes throughout the avian breeding season. These predatory snakes are usually found on the landscape within 100 meters of shrubs which are located in draws and on rocky outcrops. Birds nesting in increased vegetation structure and decreased shrubs may better avoid snake predators and have shown higher reproductive success. The habitat at predated nests is more similar to snake habitat than the habitat at fledged nests is to snake habitat. |
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