The Mike Madders Field Research Award projects
2012
In 2012 the field of applicants a number of interesting and exciting proposals were received and the Board of Directors at Natural Research, decided to award support to three.
In due course, we will post information on how these projects have progressed, and made use of our support.
Dr. Arnaud Desbiez
Releasing a giant armadillo (A. Desbiez)
Dr. Desbiez, a researcher at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, has been working in the Brazilian Pantanal since 2002 on a variety of topics, and since 2010 has been studying the little known giant armadillo (Pridontes maximus).
Dr. Desbiez will use his Mike Madders Field Research Award to purchase camera traps to investigate armadillo ecology and biology, so as to better understand the armadillo’s function in the ecosystem.
Lic. María Liébana
Alpomado Falcon (M.S Liébana)
Lic. Liébana, a doctoral fellow at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina (CONICET), will use her award to examine the effects of agricultural intensification on wildlife on the Pampas, using the Aplomado falcon (Falco femoralis) as a model. She will concentrate her research so as to better understand territoriality and habitat use.
Lavrentis Sidiropoulos and Tvetomira Yotsova
Golden eagle arriving at nest (P. Babakas)
L. Sidiropoulos is an independent researcher currently pursuing a Master’s degree at Imperial College, London, and T. Yotsova is a researcher at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds. They will use their award to complete a survey of golden eagles in the Rhodope Mountains on the border between Greece and Bulgaria, where wind energy developments are being considered. Preliminary information suggests an apparently low mean age of breeders and this may indicate near-future population declines. They will also examine the relationship between golden eagle reproductive parameters and pastoral practices in the study area.
2011
Robert Miller with goshawk
Robert Miller
Robert Miller, a master's student at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA, won the 2011 Mike Madders Field Research Award with his proposal, "Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) breeding, productivity, and sex-ratios relative to forest structure, prey abundance, and habitat change within the Sawtooth National Forest" His proposal aimed to address four research questions:
- What prey do goshawks depend upon in the South Hills of the Sawtooth National Forest?
- Does prey abundance affect goshawk site selection and/or nest productivity, and if so, which prey elements are the key determining factors?
- Do habitat structural changes and disturbance affect nest productivity?
- Does habitat structure or prey abundance affect secondary sex ratio of successfully fledged young?
Mr Miller used nest cameras to record prey deliveries, and undertook analyses aimed at relating prey abundance and habitat to occupancy and other reproductive parameters. Mr Miller presented his findings in a poster at the Boise State University Graduate Research Conference and the 2011 Raptor Research Foundation meeting held in Duluth, Minnesota, USA.
2010
Mamikon Ghasabian
Lesser kestrel
The lesser kestrel is a small falcon whose global conservation status is Vulnerable. Mamikon Ghasabian has colour ringed lesser kestrels in Armenia to better understand juvenile rate of return, turnover, recruitment and longevity. Dr Ghasabian has been studying a colony in southern Armenia, which occupies a TV broadcasting station. In recent years local school children have built artificial nest boxes for the kestrels and the Armenian Society for the Protection of Birds now rents a building where kestrels nest - a building with 30 nesting pairs of kestrels that was planned to be demolished. In total there are now 48 nest sites in the area, with 10 pairs occupying the artificial nests.
During 2010, monitoring of the lesser kestrels started in early spring. The first three birds were observed in early March. By April the entire colony had returned, and numbered 60-65 individuals (20-25 pairs) - about the same size as in 2009. The breeding success in the artificial tower was higher than in 2009: 33 eggs and 31 fledglings.
Twenty-three juveniles and 10 adults were ringed during the summer, and some nestlings fledged as early as mid-July.
The Mike Madders Field Research Award paid for ringing equipment (including colour rings) and travel.
Ivailo Angelov
Egyptian vulture
Ivailo Angelov has been carrying out research on Egyptian vultures in Bulgaria. In 2003, 57 pairs were recorded. This number dropped to 31 pairs in 2009. Despite monthly monitoring of pairs, guarding of nests, supplementary feeding and many other conservation efforts, it appears that adult mortality is increasing.
With funding from The Mike Madders Field Research Award in 2010, Mr Angelov has been piloting a method to individually identify vultures, both breeders and non-territorial floaters, using photographs of their faces. Five individuals from three pairs are currently identifiable by facial characteristics and more pictures of faces of Egyptian vultures are being collected by professional and amateur photographers that cooperate with Mr Angelov. The local communal roosting site, used by up to 26 birds in previous years, was not used in 2010 and only up to 4 territorial birds of two neighbouring pairs were observed, so no effort could be made to photograph immatures.
The main lesson learned from 2010 was that the previously planned "digiscoping" of vultures from a hide at a feeding place is very time consuming, and not always successful. To address this Mr Angelov and his team bought camera traps in 2011, which should be a much more effective way of photographing the facial characteristics of the birds. You can get more details on the work on using facial characteristics to identify identification of Egyptian vultures here: http://www.neophron.bspb.org/deinosti/ind_razpoz-en.html Mr Angelov and his team have published an article on Egyptian vultures in der Falke (2011, 58(9):372-378).
Photos by R. Miller, M. Ghasabian and I. Angelov