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Birds sound alarm over habitat fragmentation
« on: Feb 28th, 2006, 10:01am » |
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Birds sound alarm over habitat fragmentation
BirdLife International
27-02-2006
Bird song can be influenced by habitat fragmentation, according to a study published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology (42: 1183–1193).
Analysis of songs of more than 200 Dupont's Larks Chersophilus duponti in Spain and Morocco found that in fragmented habitats there was increased mimicry between neighbouring birds, resulting in an intensification of the differences between non-neighbouring individuals. Sharing song types – when a male replies to a rival’s song with the same song sequence – is common in birds, and is thought to act as a threat signal between males.
"This suggests that males from fragmented habitats perceived as rivals only the close neighbours with which they engaged in counter-singing," say the study’s authors, Dr Paola Laiolo and Dr José Tella of Spain’s Estación Biologica de Doñana. "Bird vocalisations could become an early warning system for detecting the effects of habitat fragmentation before other indicators – such as genetic markers – show any change," they conclude.
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/02/habitat_fragmentation.html
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