On Avian Mortality Associated with Human Activities

Travis Longcore,Paul A Smith

doi:10.5751/ace-00606-080201

Abstract

INRODUCTION This special feature of Avian Conservation and Ecology contains a Special Issue of ten articles describing extent and character of avian mortality in Canada associated with human activities. These include estimates of mortality resulting from mowing and other mechanical operations, industrial forestry, domestic cats, collisions with windows, wind turbines, power lines and vehicles, bycatch in commercial fisheries, and both offshore and terrestrial oil and gas exploration and production. These articles contain sector-based assessments of the annual magnitude of the number of eggs or active nests destroyed and number of birds killed as a consequence of a wide range of human activities, excluding habitat development and hunting. This Special Issue represents an unprecedented snapshot of the state of knowledge for such sources of mortality for an entire country at a specific time. Needless to say, numbers of such avian mortalities that can be attributed to humans are large and unevenly distributed among species and different activities.

Highlights

Researchers and managers often consider human-related mortality of birds to be important only when bird deaths result in a decline of the population of a species (Mayfield 1967), or when a species is killed that is listed as endangered or otherwise protected by law
INRODUCTION This special feature of Avian Conservation and Ecology contains a Special Issue of ten articles describing extent and character of avian mortality in Canada associated with human activities
These include estimates of mortality resulting from mowing and other mechanical operations, industrial forestry, domestic cats, collisions with windows, wind turbines, power lines and vehicles, bycatch in commercial fisheries, and both offshore and terrestrial oil and gas exploration and production. These articles contain sector-based assessments of the annual magnitude of the number of eggs or active nests destroyed and number of birds killed as a consequence of a wide range of human activities, excluding habitat development and hunting. This Special Issue represents an unprecedented snapshot of the state of knowledge for such sources of mortality for an entire country at a specific time

Summary

Introduction

Researchers and managers often consider human-related mortality of birds to be important only when bird deaths result in a decline of the population of a species (Mayfield 1967), or when a species is killed that is listed as endangered or otherwise protected by law. The effects of human-related mortality on other species or on ecosystem processes (Wenny et al 2011) are not even considered when the standard for action is a documented population decline.

Results

Conclusion