Impacts of transmitter weight and attachment on raptor agility and survival

Date

2019-08

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Abstract

I have combined multiple studies regarding the impacts of wildlife location transmitters on avian behavior for this dissertation. Chapters I and II focus on the impacts of transmitters on raptor flight abilities. I used Chapter I to directly study the alterations in Red-tailed Hawk and Harris’s Hawk flight paths associated with use of satellite transmitters. Chapter II indirectly investigates transmitter impacts by comparing parent behavior and food provisioning of nestlings at Swainson’s Hawk nests tended by transmittered adults and those tended by non-transmittered adults. In Chapter III, I investigate impacts of transmitters on predatory selection of avian prey species by studying selection of transmittered Northern Bobwhite by Harris’s Hawk. Finally, Chapter IV is a published investigation of Harris’s Hawk selection of captive-reared Northern Bobwhite. Though this last chapter does not directly investigate the impacts of wildlife location transmitters, the study was necessary to complete the work in Chapter III.

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Keywords

Radio transmitter, Flight impacts, Northern bobwhite selection, Harris's hawk flight, Red-tailed hawk flight, Swainson's Hawk prey delivery

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