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Comparative Analysis of Mourning Dove Population Change in North America
Author(s) -
SAUER JOHN R.,
LINK WILLIAM A.,
KENDALL WILLIAM L.,
DOLTON DAVID D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the journal of wildlife management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1937-2817
pISSN - 0022-541X
DOI - 10.2193/2008-459
Subject(s) - dove , breeding bird survey , geography , abundance (ecology) , index (typography) , population , survey data collection , multilevel model , ecology , demography , statistics , physical geography , biology , mathematics , computer science , sociology , world wide web , political science , law
Mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ) are surveyed in North America with a Call‐Count Survey (CCS) and the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Analyses in recent years have identified inconsistencies in results between surveys, and a need exists to analyze the surveys using modern methods and examine possible causes of differences in survey results. Call‐Count Survey observers collect separate information on number of doves heard and number of doves seen during counting, whereas BBS observers record one index containing all doves observed. We used hierarchical log‐linear models to estimate trend and annual indices of abundance for 1966–2007 from BBS data, CCS‐heard data, and CCS‐seen data. Trend estimates from analyses provided inconsistent results for several states and for eastern and central dove‐management units. We examined differential effects of change in land use and noise‐related disturbance on the CCS indices. Changes in noise‐related disturbance along CCS routes had a larger influence on the heard index than on the seen index, but association analyses among states of changes in temperature and of amounts of developed land suggest that CCS indices are differentially influenced by changes in these environmental features. Our hierarchical model should be used to estimate population change from dove surveys, because it provides an efficient framework for estimating population trends from dove indices while controlling for environmental features that differentially influence the indices.