Natal Dispersal of Eastern Screech-Owls’
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The Condor91:254-265 0 TheCooper Ornithological Society I989 NATAL DISPERSAL OF EASTERN SCREECH-OWLS’ JAMES R. BELTHOFF~ AND GARY RITCHISON Department of BiologicalSciences, Eastern Kentucky University,Richmond, KY 40475 Abstract. Using radiotelemetrywe monitoreddispersing juvenile EasternScreech-Owls (Otus asio) in centralKentucky during 1985 and 1986.Juvenile owls (n = 16) from seven familiesremained on natal territoriesfor an average(*SE) of 55 + 1.3 daysafter fledging. The meandispersal date was 15 July, rangingfrom 8 to 2 1 July. The mean numberof days betweendispersal of the first and last membersof a brood was 4.3, rangingfrom 0 to 9 days.Juveniles (n = 17) disperseda mediandistance of 2.3 km from their nest(X = 4.4 k 1.11 km), rangingfrom 0.4 to 16.9 km, including one juvenile that continued to useportions of its natal home range. Dispersal distance was not significantly correlated with either dispersal date or the number of days that juveniles remained on natal territories. Mean dispersaldirection was 2 10 * 99. l”, and the distribution of dispersalangles did not differ significantlyfrom random. After departing from natal areas,individuals (n = 7) settled after an average of 5.6 days, ranging from 2 to 11 days. Mortality of juvenile owls was 18.2% during the period prior to dispersalbut increasedto 67% after dispersal. Key words: Natal dispersal;Eastern Screech-Owl;Otus asio;juvenile mortality; central Kentucky. INTRODUCTION em Screech-Owlshave been restricted to the re- Dispersal, the movement from natal to first covery of birds banded as nestlings in popula- breeding site (natal dispersal) or between breed- tions that use artificial nest boxes (VanCamp and ing sites (breeding dispersal), has received rela- Henny 1975, Gehlbach 1986). Such studies pro- tively little attention from field investigators, pri- vide information concerning dispersal distances marily because of the practical difficulties and directions but offer little insight into the be- involved in following individuals as they dis- havior of dispersing individuals. Further, infor- perse. Nevertheless, the importance of dispersal mation based on band recoveries can be biased to populations has long been recognized. For ex- (Miller and Meslow 1985). ample, Gadgil (1971, p. 253) stated that, “dis- The objective of our study was to monitor dis- persal is one of the most important and among persingjuvenile Eastern Screech-Owlsin central the least understood factors of population biol- Kentucky. We summarize the timing, duration, ogy,” while Horn (1983) noted that dispersaland rate, distance, and direction of natal dispersal its patterns affect all aspectsof a species’ ecology movements, and report the causes,extent, and and behavior. Although defined differently by timing of mortality. various authors, we defined natal dispersalas the STUDY AREA AND METHODS permanent movement of individuals to a new location irrespective of whether or not they re- We conducted observations between May 1985 produced after dispersal (i.e., gross dispersal; and February 1987 in and near the 680-ha Cen- Greenwood 1980). tral Kentucky Wildlife Management Area Eastern Screech-Owls (Otus asio) are widely (CKWMA), located 17 km southeast of Rich- distributed and common throughout much of the mond, Madison County, Kentucky. The man- eastern United States. Most populations appear agement area consisted of small deciduous to be nonmigratory with little movement among woodlots and thickets interspersed with culti- adult owls. Previous studies of dispersalby East- vated fields and old fields (seeBelthoff [ 19871 for a description of habitat types and dominant plant species).Areas surrounding the CKWMA were mainly agricultural, with extensively wooded 1Received 16 September1988. Final acceptance7 December1988. tracts and mountainous terrain located to the 2 Presentaddress: Department of BiologicalSci- east and southeast. ences,Clemson University, Clemson,SC 29634. We captured adult Eastern Screech-Owlseither w41 EASTERN SCREECH-OWL DISPERSAL 255 from artificial nest boxes and natural tree cavi- engine airplane from which we either held the ties, or by luring them into mist nets by broad- two-element yagi antenna from an open window castingbounce songs(Ritchison et al. 1988). Nests or secured it to a wheel support. We traversed were located by following radio-taggedadults and areas surrounding the study area at altitudes of by examining suitable tree cavities. We removed approximately 700 m. After determining the gen- nestlings from nests and equipped each with a eral location of dispersingjuveniles in this man- radio transmitter (Wildlife Materials Inc., Car- ner, we attempted to locate juvenile owls from bondale, IL) and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the ground. We tried to locate dispersing owls aluminum band several days before fledging. Ra- daily but were sometimes unsuccessful. Loca- dio transmitters were attached backpack style tions of dispersing juveniles in rugged, inacces- (Smith and Gilbert 198 1) with woven nylon cord sible terrain were determined by the triangula- (approximately 0.25 cm in diameter). Complete tion of at least two compass bearings; owls in packages,transmitter plus harness, weighed less more accessibleterrain were visually located. We than 8 g. Entire broods were fitted with radio measureddispersal distances and directions from transmitters with one exception, the 1986 Trap the nest to either the site of first breeding attempt, Range family. Initially, we radio-tagged only two the center of an animal’s activity range during of four young in this family, but one of the radio- the fall and winter, or to the site of an individual’s taggedyoung was killed the night it fledged. We death using aerial photographs and U.S. Geo- captured and radio-tagged an additional 1986 logical Survey topographical maps of the study Trap Range juvenile 27 days later by luring it area. The sex of juvenile owls could not be de- into a mist net during playback of bounce songs termined prior to an individual’s first breeding on its natal territory. We refer to individual owls attempt, at which time we determined sex by the by either the last three digits of their U.S. Fish presenceof a brood patch or by behavior. and Wildlife Service bands or by their respective We used Mann-Whitney U-tests to examine family names. differencesin dispersal distances and the timing After young owls fledged, we located the diur- of dispersal between years and Spearman’s rank nal roost sites of each adult and juvenile an av- correlation coefficients to examine the effect of erage of four times per week in 1985 and daily dispersal date on dispersal distance (Zar 1974). in 1986 until dispersal. Thus, we were able to Linear means and their standard errors are re- determine the number of days that juveniles re- ported as K -t SE. The degree to which distri- mained on natal territories prior to dispersal.We butions of dispersal distances were skewed (sk) defined the date of dispersal as that date when was calculated by subtracting the median from an owl no longer roosted on its natal territory the mean, multiplying the difference by three, (juvenile owls actually dispersed the previous and dividing by the standard deviation (Glass night). Becauseowls were radio-tagged, the date and Hopkins 1984, p. 68). Mean dispersalangles of dispersalwas easily detectedand was typically (a) were calculated after Zar (1974). We calcu- unambiguous. However, three young owls de- lated angular deviation (s), a statistic analogous parted from natal territories but subsequently to standard deviation for linear data, by using returned to roost. We termed such movements the following formula (Zar 1974, p. 3 16): “exploratory” movements and, because owls s = 180/a [d-4.60517 log r] degrees, generally remained on natal territories for only a day or so following exploratory movements, where r is a measure of concentration that has we considereddispersal date as the date of initial no units but can vary from 0, when there is so departure. much dispersion that a mean angle cannot be After dispersal, we searchedfor owls in adja- described,to 1.O, when all data are concentrated cent and surrounding woodlots on foot using a in the same direction (see Zar 1974, p. 3 13 for hand-held receiver (Model TR-24, Telonics Inc., calculation of r). Mean angles and angular de- Mesa, AZ) and a two-element yagi antenna (Te- viation are given as d ? s. We applied Rayleigh’s lonics Inc.). If an owl could not be located in this test (Rayleigh’s z) to determine if significant mean manner, we drove roads surrounding the study directions occurredwithin the sampled dispersal area in an automobile with a bumper-mounted distributions or whether dispersaldirections were omni-directional antenna (Telonics Inc.). If still distributed randomly (Zar 1974). Finally, we ap- unable to locate dispersingbirds, we used a single plied the nonparametric Watson’s test to deter- 256 JAMES R. BELTHOFF AND GARY RITCHISON TABLE 1. Timing of juvenile natal dispersalmovements in sevenfamilies of EasternScreech-Owls in central Kentucky. Family n Days PF’ (X k SE) Range(days) Mean date Range(dates) Off-property : 62.7 + 1.45 60-65 19 July 16-21 July 1985 Muddy Creek 57.7 -c 1.20 56-60 10 July 8-12 July 1985 Trap Range‘85 3 49.0 f 2.31 45-53 13 July 9-18 July 1985 Stream 2 55.0 + 0.00 55 15 July 15 July 1986 GoosePen 22 53.0 f 0.00 53 20.5 July 20-21 July 1986 Hilltop 1 58.0 f 0.00 58 16 July 16 July 1986 Trap Range‘86 2 53.5 f 0.50 53-54 13.5 July 13-14 July 1986 Overall 16 55.4 2 1.26 45-65 15 July 8-21 July I Number of dayspostfledging when youngowls first left natal territories. 2An additional GoosePen juvenile remainedcm portions of its natal territory so we could not determinedispersal date for this individual.