RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Causes, temporal trends and the effects of urbanisation on admissions of wild raptors to rehabilitation centres in England and Wales
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.02.10.479874
DO 10.1101/2022.02.10.479874
A1 Connor T. Panter
A1 Simon Allen
A1 Nikki Backhouse
A1 Elizabeth Mullineaux
A1 Carole-Ann Rose
A1 Arjun Amar
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/10/2022.02.10.479874.abstract
AB Data from wildlife rehabilitation centres can provide on-the-ground records of causes of raptor morbidity and mortality, allowing threat patterns to be explored throughout time and space. We provide an overview of native raptor admissions to four wildlife rehabilitation centres (WRCs) in England and Wales, quantifying the main causes of morbidity and mortality, trends over time and whether certain causes were more common in more urbanised areas between 2001-2019. Throughout the study period 14 raptor species were admitted totalling 3305 admission records. The Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo; 31%) and Tawny Owl (Strix aluco; 29%) were most numerous. Relative to the proportion of breeding individuals in Britain & Ireland, Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus), Little Owls (Athene noctua) and Western Barn Owls (Tyto alba) were over-represented in the admissions data by 103%, 73% and 69%, respectively. Contrastingly Northern Long-eared Owls (Asio otus), Western Marsh Harriers (Circus aeruginosus) and Merlin (Falco columbarius) were under-represented by 187%, 163% and 126%, respectively. Across all species, vehicle collisions were the most frequent anthropogenic admission cause (22%) and orphaned young birds (10%) were most frequent natural admission cause. Mortality rate was highest for infection/parasite admissions (90%), whereas orphaned birds experienced lowest mortality rates (16%). For one WRC, there was a notable decline in admissions over the study period. Red Kite (Milvus milvus) admissions increased over time, whereas Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel admissions declined. There were significant declines in the relative proportion of persecution and metabolic admissions, and an increase in orphaned young birds. Urban areas were positively associated with persecution, building collisions and unknown trauma admissions, whereas vehicle collisions were associated with more rural areas. Many threats persist for raptors in England and Wales, however, have not changed substantially over the past two decades. Threats associated with urban areas, such as building collisions, may increase over time in line with human population growth and subsequent urban expansion.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.