Long-term trends in the body condition of parents and offspring of Tengmalm's owls under fluctuating food conditions and climate change.

ABSTRACT: Physical condition is important for the ability to resist various parasites and diseases as well as in escaping predators thus contributing to reproductive success, over-winter survival and possible declines in wildlife populations. However, in-depth research on trends in body condition is rare because decades-long datasets are not available for a majority of species. We analysed the long-term dataset of offspring covering 34 years, male parents (40 years) and female parents (42 years) to find out whether the decline of Tengmalm's owl population in western Finland is attributable to either decreased adult and/or juvenile body condition in interaction with changing weather conditions and density estimates of main foods. We found that body condition of parent owl males and females declined t

SUBMITTER: Kouba M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8460639 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature