Individual and environmental determinants of early brood survival in black grouse Tetrao tetrix

• Published in: Wildlife biology 2010-12, Vol.16 (4), p.367-378
• Main Authors: Ludwig, Gilbert X., Alatalo, Rauno V., Helle, Pekka, Siitari, Heli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adults; bilberry; Birds; black grouse; Breeding; brood rearing; brood survival; brooding; chicks; climate change; drainage; equations; food availability; forests; Grouse; Habitat (Ecology); hatching; juveniles; landscapes; Lyrurus tetrix; Modification; Original s; population growth; predation; Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc; survival rate; temperature; Tetrao tetrix; Vaccinium myrtillus; weather; yearlings
• ISSN: 0909-6396; 1903-220X
• DOI: 10.2981/10-013

In black grouse Tetrao tetrix the survival of juveniles from hatching until recruitment is a critical determinant of population growth. The proportion of juvenile survivors from hatching until recruitment declines continually, but juvenile mortality rates are commonly highest during approximately the first 10 days after hatching. Likely causes of mortality include adverse weather, predation and availability of food. Little is known, however, about how individual properties, such as body mass of hen or chicks and properties of the brood rearing environment (e.g. vegetation characteristics or weather conditions) interact with each other and/or with fluctuating levels of predator abundance in determining early brood survival, simply because such data are very scarce. Using an information-theoretic approach, our paper identifies determinants of early daily survival rates of black grouse chicks in a managed forest landscape of central Finland. During the three years of our study, the proportion of hens losing their broods within 10 days after hatching varied between 0.08 and 0.36.The variation in daily survival rates of chicks was largely mediated by a combination of four key explanatory variables. Brood survival clearly increased with the extent of bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus cover, and was further affected by interactions of temperature and hatching date as well as temperature and chick body mass. Low temperatures consistently resulted in lower daily survival rates. An increase in temperature, however, was more beneficial for early hatchers and heavy chicks. There was no difference in survival between broods from yearling and adult hens and we found no effect of predator density, be it as main effect or as interaction with other variables, on the daily survival rates of chicks. Improving black grouse breeding success can be regarded as a key management target which may be critical for their recovery. Our results suggest that such management should favour protection or local recovery of bilberry, as well as integrate weather and climate changes into the equation of hunting management.