Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-495rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-21T05:04:43.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Habitat selection and population status of breeding Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in an alpine meadow in Sichuan, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2023

Xiaotong Ren Open the ORCID record for Xiaotong Ren [Opens in a new window] ,
Shen Zhang Open the ORCID record for Shen Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Ke Huang ,
He-Bo Peng ,
Changlin Li ,
Ding Zhao ,
Dehong Pang ,
Yong Wu ,
Peng Liu  and
Peng Chen
...Show all authors
Xiaotong Ren*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Shen Zhang
Affiliation:
Shan Shui Conservation Center, Beijing 100871, China
Ke Huang
Affiliation:
Chengdu Bird Watching Society, Chengdu 610041, China
He-Bo Peng
Affiliation:
Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
Changlin Li
Affiliation:
Xuebaoding National Nature Reserve, Mianyang 622550, China
Ding Zhao
Affiliation:
Xuebaoding National Nature Reserve, Mianyang 622550, China
Dehong Pang
Affiliation:
Xuebaoding National Nature Reserve, Mianyang 622550, China
Yong Wu
Affiliation:
Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Pingwu County, Mianyang 622550, China
Peng Liu
Affiliation:
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, 610081, China
Peng Chen
Affiliation:
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, 610081, China
Rong Hou
Affiliation:
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, 610081, China
Richard A. Fuller
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
Fangyuan Hua
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Pinjia Que*
Affiliation:
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, 610081, China
*
* Author for correspondence: Xiaotong Ren and Pinjia Que, Email: mintren@gmail.com, quepinjia@gmail.com
* Author for correspondence: Xiaotong Ren and Pinjia Que, Email: mintren@gmail.com, quepinjia@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola is one of the least known shorebird species, and its habitat associations are very poorly understood. Here we provide the first assessment of the habitat use of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season. Between May and July 2021 at a 4-km2 alpine meadow in Sichuan province, China, we conducted population surveys and behavioural observations to identify sites where breeding Wood Snipe occurred and foraged. We quantified the habitat characteristics and food resource availability of these sites and compared them with randomly selected “background” sites. Comparison between 34 occurrence sites and 25 background sites indicated that during the breeding season, Wood Snipes are not distributed evenly across alpine meadow habitats, but preferred habitats in the lower part (3,378–3,624 m) of the alpine meadow with intermediate levels of soil moisture. In addition, comparison between 17 foraging sites and 24 background sites showed that the Wood Snipe tended to forage at sites with higher soil fauna abundance. We found weak evidence for denser vegetation cover at its height and no evidence for other biotic habitat variables such as vegetation composition or other abiotic habitat variables such as slope, soil penetrability, or disturbance level to influence Wood Snipe habitat associations. Our results suggest that the actual distribution range of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season may be smaller than expected from the extent of apparently suitable habitat. We advise caution in evaluating the potential habitat availability and distribution of the Wood Snipe, and call for further research to better understand the ecology of this rare species to inform its conservation.

Keywords

Hengduan MountainsResource selectionShorebirdThreatened species
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 33 , 2023 , e54
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baral, H. S., Inskipp, C., Inskipp, T. P. and Regmi, U. R. (1996) Threatened birds of Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: Bird Conservation Nepal and Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.Google Scholar
Basnet, H., Shrestha, M. B., Thakuri, D. C., Pun, T., Chaudhary, D. and Baral, H. S. (2021) Ecology and status of Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in Lamtang National Park, Nepal. Wader Study 128 : 220–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basnet, H., Shrestha, M. B., Thakuri, D. C., Pun, T., Tamang, R. and Chaudhary, D. (2020) Ecology and conservation of Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in Lauribina-Gosainkunda area, Lamtang National Park, Nepal. Oriental Bird Club and Wader Quest https://www.waderquest.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Wood-Snipe-Report_HB_Sept2020.pdf.Google Scholar
BirdLife International. (2001) Threatened birds of Asia: the BirdLife International Red Data Book. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.Google Scholar
BirdLife International. (2017) Gallinago nemoricola (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T22693082A117048348.Google Scholar
Cottam, G., Curtis, J. T. and Hale, B. W. (1953) Some sampling characteristics of a population of randomly dispersed individuals. Ecology 34 : 741–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulis, M. and Joly, F.-X. (2017) Allometric equations for estimating fresh biomass of five soil macroinvertebrate species from neotropical agroecosystems. Eur. J. Soil Biol. 83 : 18–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, J. A. and Duff, A. G. (2013) Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in Bhutan’s Phobjikha valley. BirdingASIA 20 : 82–83.Google Scholar
eBird. (2022) eBird: An Online Database of Bird Distribution and Abundance (web application). Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.Google Scholar
Eggleton, P., Inward, K., Smith, J., Jones, D. T. and Sherlock, E. (2009) A six year study of earthworm (Lumbricidae) populations in pasture woodland in southern England shows their responses to soil temperature and soil moisture. Soil Biol. Biochem. 41 : 1857–1865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filazzola, A., Brown, C., Dettlaff, M. A., Batbaatar, A., Grenke, J., Bao, T., Peetoom Heida, I., et al. (2020) The effects of livestock grazing on biodiversity are multi-trophic: a meta-analysis. Ecol. Lett. 23 : 1298–1309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fondell, T. F. and Ball, I. J. (2004) Density and success of bird nests relative to grazing on western Montana grasslands. Biol. Conserv. 117 : 203–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, J., Liu, S., Wang, X., Zhao, J. and Ran, J. (2007) Bird resources in Xuebaoding Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province. J. Sichuan For. Sci. Technol. 28 : 42–47.Google Scholar
Green, R. E. (1988) Effects of environmental factors on the timing and success of breeding of Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago (Aves: Scolopacidae). J. Appl. Ecol. 25 : 79–93.Google Scholar
Green, R. E., Hirons, G. J. M. and Cresswell, B. H. (1990) Foraging habitats of female Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago during the incubation period. J. Appl. Ecol. 27 : 325–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiner, H. G., Costello, D. M. and Tiegs, S. D. (2010) Allometric estimation of earthworm ash-free dry mass from diameters and lengths of select megascolecid and lumbricid species. Pedobiologia 53 : 247–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoodless, A. N., Ewald, J. A. and Baines, D. (2007) Habitat use and diet of Common Snipe Gallinago gailinago breeding on moorland in northern England. Bird Study 54 : 182–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosmer, D. W., Lemeshow, S. and Sturdivant, R. X. (2013) Special topics. Pp. 377–457. Applied logistic regression. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khatiwada, J. R. and Chaudhary, H. (2008) Status of Wood Snipe (Gallinago nemoricola) and its conservation in Langtang National Park, Central Nepal. Oriental Bird Club. https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/inskipp/2008_003.pdfGoogle Scholar
Korniluk, M., Bialomyzy, P., Grygoruk, G., Kozub, L., Sielezniew, M., Swietochowski, P., Tumiel, T., et al. (2021) Habitat selection of foraging male Great Snipes on floodplain meadows: importance of proximity to the lek, vegetation cover and bare ground. Ibis 163 : 486–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Løfaldli, L., Kålås, J. A. and Fiske, P. (1992) Habitat selection and diet of Great Snipe Gallinago media during breeding. Ibis 134 : 35–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludlow, F. and Kinnear, N. (1937) The birds of Bhutan and adjacent territories of Sikkim and Tibet. Ibis 79 : 1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludlow, F. and Kinnear, N. B. (1944) The birds of south-eastern Tibet. Ibis 86 : 43–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manly, B. F. J., McDonald, L. L., Thomas, D. L., McDonald, T. L. and Erickson, W. P. (2002) Resource selection by animals: statistical design and analysis for field studies. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
McFadden, D. (1974) Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior. Pp. 105–142 in Zarembka, P. ed. Frontiers in econometrics. New York, USA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Milsom, T. P., Hart, J. D., Parkin, W. K. and Peel, S. (2002) Management of coastal grazing marshes for breeding waders: the importance of surface topography and wetness. Biol. Conserv. 103 : 199–207.Google Scholar
Mongin, E. (2006) Breeding biology and habitat selection of the Common and Great snipe in Belarus. Pp. 82–88 in Ferrand, Y. ed. Sixth European Woodcock and Snipe Workshop – Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Wetlands International Woodcock and Snipe Specialist Group. International Wader Studies 13. Nantes, France: Wetlands International.Google Scholar
Oksanen, J., Blanchet, F. G., Friendly, M., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., McGlinn, D., Minchin, P. R., et al. (2020) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R Package Version 2.5-7. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=veganGoogle Scholar
Onrust, J., Wymenga, E., Piersma, T. and Olff, H. (2019) Earthworm activity and availability for meadow birds is restricted in intensively managed grasslands. J. Appl. Ecol. 56 : 1333–1342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, M. C., Finlayson, B. L. and McMahon, T. A. (2007) Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11 : 1633–1644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team (2020) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Robel, R., Briggs, J., Dayton, A. and Hulbert, L. (1970) Relationships between visual obstruction measurements and weight of grassland vegetation. J. Range Manag. 23 : 295–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Witkowska, M., Pinchuk, P., Meissner, W., Karlionova, N. and Marynkiewicz, Z. (2022) The level of water in the river flowing through the breeding site shapes the body condition of a lekking bird –the Great Snipe Gallinago media. J. Ornithol. 163 : 385–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Ren et al. supplementary material

Figure S1 and Tables S1-S5

Download Ren et al. supplementary material(File)
File 79.4 KB