Publication:
Satellite tracking a wide-ranging endangered vulture species to target conservation actions in the Middle East and East Africa

dc.contributor.coauthorBuechley, Evan R.
dc.contributor.coauthorMcGrady, Michael J.
dc.contributor.coauthorCoban, Emrah
dc.contributor.departmentDepartment of Molecular Biology and Genetics
dc.contributor.kuauthorŞekercioğlu, Çağan Hakkı
dc.contributor.schoolcollegeinstituteCollege of Sciences
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-09T23:02:34Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractVultures comprise the most endangered avian foraging guild (obligate scavengers) and their loss from ecosystems can trigger trophic cascades, mesopredator release, and human rabies epidemics, indicating their keystone species status. Vultures' extremely large home ranges, which often cross international borders of countries that have differing laws and capacity for wildlife conservation, makes conserving them challenging. However, satellite-tracking data can be used to identify habitat preferences and critical sites to target conservation actions. We tracked 16 Egyptian Vultures, Neophron percnopterus, in the Middle East and East Africa. We used dynamic Brownian bridge movement models to calculate home ranges and core-use areas, and we analyzed habitat use in a resource selection framework. Combined summer and winter ranges (99% utilization distributions) of all birds covered 209,800 and 274,300 km(2), respectively. However, the core-use areas (50% utilization distributions) in the summer and winter ranges, accounted for only 0.4-1.1% of this area (900 and 3100 km(2), respectively). These core-use areas are where the home ranges of multiple individuals overlapped and/or where individuals spent a lot of time, such as feeding and roosting sites, and are places where conservation actions could focus. Resource selection models predicted Egyptian Vulture occurrence throughout little-studied parts of the species' range in the Middle East and East Africa, and revealed strong selection for proximity to highways, power distribution lines, and towns. While providing roosts (e.g. power pylons) and food (e.g. garbage dumps), anthropogenic features may also function as ecological traps by increasing exposure to electrocution and dietary toxins.
dc.description.indexedbyWOS
dc.description.indexedbyScopus
dc.description.issue9
dc.description.openaccessNO
dc.description.publisherscopeInternational
dc.description.sponsoredbyTubitakEuN/A
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. National Science Foundation
dc.description.sponsorshipChristensen Fund
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Geographic Society
dc.description.sponsorshipWhitley Fund for Nature
dc.description.sponsorshipFaruk Yalcin Zoo We are grateful to our collaborators including KuzeyDoga Society (Turkey)
dc.description.sponsorshipIgdir Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (Turkey)
dc.description.sponsorshipAmerican University of Armenia
dc.description.sponsorshipEthiopia Wildlife Conservation Authority
dc.description.sponsorshipEthiopia Wildlife and Natural History Society
dc.description.sponsorshipand Djibouti Nature
dc.description.sponsorshipand our colleagues who assisted with vulture trapping, including Lale Aktay, Kayahan Agirkaya, Berkan Demir, Lexo Gavashelishvili and Mete Turkoglu (Turkey)
dc.description.sponsorshipKaren Aghababyan, Anush Khachatrian, and Garo Kurginyan (Armenia)
dc.description.sponsorshipSisay Seyfu, Alazar Daka Rufo, Yilma Dellelegn Abebe, and Girma Ayalew (Ethiopia)
dc.description.sponsorshipand Houssein Rayaleh (Djibouti). We thank the country permitting agencies that allowed us to trap Egyptian Vultures, including Turkey's Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks
dc.description.sponsorshipMinistry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia
dc.description.sponsorshipEthiopia Wildlife Conservation Authority
dc.description.sponsorshipand Direction de l'Environnement et du Developpement Durable, Ministere de l'Habitat, de l'Urbanisme et de l'Environnement, and Association Djibouti Nature (BirdLife in Djibouti). RSF modeling was based on a workshop by Peter Mahoney and Michel Kohl. Mark Chynoweth provided insights on the analyses. Mara Elana Burstein provided an internal review. For funding support, we thank the U.S. National Science Foundation, Christensen Fund, National Geographic Society, Whitley Fund for Nature, Faruk Yalcin Zoo, and KuzeyDoga's donors (in particular Bilge Bahar, Devrim Celal, Seha Ismen, Yalin Karadogan, Omer Kulahcioglu, Lin Lougheed, Burak Over, and Batubay Ozkan). We are grateful to Turkey's Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, and NorthStar Science and Technology for donating three transmitters each.
dc.description.volume27
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10531-018-1538-6
dc.identifier.eissn1572-9710
dc.identifier.issn0960-3115
dc.identifier.quartileQ1
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-85044249430
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1538-6
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/8315
dc.identifier.wos434373100010
dc.keywordsEgyptian vulture
dc.keywordsNeophron percnopterus
dc.keywordsConservation biology
dc.keywordsConservation planning
dc.keywordsHabitat selection
dc.keywordsResource selection brownian bridge movement
dc.keywordsNeophron-percnopterus
dc.keywordsHabitat selection
dc.keywordsGolden eagles
dc.keywordsMigration routes
dc.keywordsSpace use
dc.keywordsPopulation
dc.keywordsBirds
dc.keywordsExtinctions
dc.keywordsTechnology
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSpringer
dc.relation.ispartofBiodiversity and Conservation
dc.subjectBiodiversity conservation
dc.subjectEcology
dc.subjectEnvironmental sciences
dc.titleSatellite tracking a wide-ranging endangered vulture species to target conservation actions in the Middle East and East Africa
dc.typeJournal Article
dspace.entity.typePublication
local.contributor.kuauthorŞekercioğlu, Çağan Hakkı
local.publication.orgunit1College of Sciences
local.publication.orgunit2Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
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relation.isParentOrgUnitOfPublicationaf0395b0-7219-4165-a909-7016fa30932d
relation.isParentOrgUnitOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryaf0395b0-7219-4165-a909-7016fa30932d

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