Post-Breeding Dispersal of Burrowing Owls in an Extensive California Grassland

Understanding patterns of dispersal is key to developing effective conservation plans, yet dispersal is poorly known for most species. We radio-tracked 15 adult burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) from 13 nests within the Carrizo Plain National Monument in southern California. Our goal was to descri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American midland naturalist Vol. 155; no. 1; pp. 162 - 167
Main Authors ROSIER, JEFF R, RONAN, NOELLE A, ROSENBERG, DANIEL K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Notre Dame University of Notre Dame 01.01.2006
American Midland Naturalist
Subjects
Animal nesting
Biotelemetry
Bird nesting
Birds of prey
Breeding
Breeding seasons
Burrowing
Burrows
Contents
Dispersal
Environmental protection
Estimates
Grasses
Grasslands
Nature
Nesting sites
Owls
California
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Summary:Understanding patterns of dispersal is key to developing effective conservation plans, yet dispersal is poorly known for most species. We radio-tracked 15 adult burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) from 13 nests within the Carrizo Plain National Monument in southern California. Our goal was to describe post-breeding movements in this extensive grassland system. Of nests that failed (n = 9 nests), 8 radio-tagged individuals from 7 nests dispersed, whereas none of the owls from successful nests (n = 4 nests) dispersed. Dispersal distances ranged from 0.2 km to 53 km (median = 3.1 km). The large dispersal distances we observed within the breeding season were greater than previously published estimates of between-year breeding dispersal based on mark-recapture methods and provide insight into the lack of genetic differentiation observed among burrowing owl populations.
ISSN:0003-0031
1938-4238
DOI:10.1674/0003-0031(2006)155[0162:PDOBOI]2.0.CO;2