New Publication on Egyptian vulture and EU-LIFE project !

Badia‐Boher, J., Sanz-Aguilar A., de La Riva M., Gangoso, L., van Overveld, T., García-Alfonso, M., Luzardo, O. P,Suarez Pérez, A., and  Donázar, J. A. 2019 Evaluating European LIFE conservation projects: Improvements in survival of an endangered vulture. Journal of Applied Ecology, doi 10.1111/1365-2664.13350.

1. Long‐lived avian scavengers are threatened worldwide and thus, are common targets of conservation plans. However, scientific evidence of both the factors limiting populations and effectiveness of management actions are greatly needed in order to develop more efficient and successful conservation strategies.
   
2. We assessed the effectiveness of conservation actions applied within a LIFE‐Nature project aimed at improving the long‐term survival of the critically endangered Canarian Egyptian vulture: including education campaigns for public awareness and control of illegal poisoning and the modification of power lines to reduce the risk of accidents. We formulated a multievent capture–mark–recapture model to obtain estimates of survival for juvenile, subadult and adult birds accounting for probabilities of resight, recovery and losses of metal and colour rings.
3. Models supported a substantial enhancement in survival for subadult and adult birds and a moderate improvement for juveniles after the implementation of LIFE actions. Ring loss probabilities became notably high in the middle to long term.
   
4. Poisoning events became very rare after LIFE was implemented, suggesting a positive effect of environmental education and awareness campaigns. Entanglements and collisions in power lines were also efficiently mitigated. Instead, electrocutions became the most identified cause of death in the post‐LIFE stage.
   
5. Synthesis and applications. Our results highlight the improvement of survival in a threatened island vulture population after the implementation of a European LIFE conservation project. On small islands, with small human populations and few stakeholders, education and awareness campaigns can be especially effective for biodiversity conservation. We also demonstrate the need to complement conservation programmes with long‐term monitoring, which is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of actions, especially for long‐lived species

Press notes here and here.

News on urban ecology!

A new press release by E. Soto at B@leópolis on Urban Ecology, inspired by the work of Alvaro Luna. Alvaro is a Ph.D student supervised by A. Sanz-Aguilar (from the GEDA) and M. Carrete (from the EBD-CSIC). In his book (available here and here) Alvaro compiles the most incredible cases of wild animals living in the urban enviornment, the new colonizations and the adaptations. The book identifies our cities as a new ecosystem to study and to explore.

GEDA at the 11F-Balears !

The GEDA joined the 11F-Balears during the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. A Sanz-Aguilar, M. Serra and A. Cortés-Avizanda participated to the "Science Speed Dating" (at the French international school, the Molta Barra and the Caixa Forum in Palma).
 
Marta made the point on the Grifon vulture proyect and introduced a real-size vulture model. Three persons were necessary to fully open its wings! More on 11F activities here.

New Publication on Invasive species and uncertainty models ! (and Cover)

Senar, J.C., Arroyo, L., Ortega-Segalerva, A., Carrillo, J.G., Tomas, X., Montalvo, T., Sanz-Aguilar, A., 2019 Estimating age‐dependent survival when juveniles resemble females: Invasive ring‐necked parakeets as an example Ecology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4366

Photo M Cabrera

Abstract: Many species only show sexual dimorphism at the age of maturity, such that juveniles typically resemble females. Under these circumstances, estimating accurate age‐specific demographic parameters is challenging. Here, we propose a multievent model parameterization able to estimate age‐dependent survival using capture–recapture data with uncertainty in age and sex assignment of individuals. We illustrate this modeling approach with capture–recaptuPsittacula krameri. We analyzed capture, recapture, and resighting data (439 recaptures/resightings) of 156 ring‐necked parakeets tagged with neck collars in Barcelona city from 2003 to 2016 to estimate the juvenile and adult survival rate. Our models successfully estimated the survival probabilities of the different age classes considered. Survival probability was similar between adults (0.83, 95% CI = 0.77–0.87) and juveniles during their second (0.79, 95% CI = 0.58–0.87) and third winter (0.83, 95% CI = 0.65–0.88). The youngest juveniles (1st winter) showed a slightly lower survival (0.57, 95% CI = 0.37–0.79). Among adults, females showed a slightly higher survival than males (0.87, 95% CI = 0.78–0.93; and 0.80, 95% CI = 0.73–0.86, respectively). These high survival figures predict high population persistence in this species and urge management policies. The analysis also stresses the usefulness of multievent models to estimate juvenile survival when age cannot be fully ascertained.