DOI: 10.25375/uct.14431454
title: How common ravens (Corvus corax) exploit anthropogenic food sources through time and space in a semi-transformed, alpine environment

description: Datasets and code accompanying Varalika Jain's Conservation Biology Master's thesis.<b><br></b><b>Abstract</b>From large-scale agriculture and farming to concentrated fishing discards, garbage dumps, game carcasses and bird feeders, human action has increasingly affected natural systems and animal species through the deliberate and unintentional provisioning of food resources. Anthropogenic food sources (AFSs) are often more spatially concentrated, easily accessible, abundant and stable than natural food sources. The common raven, <i>Corvus corax</i>, is a behaviourally flexible and ecologically adaptable species that has managed to thrive in human transformed landscapes by exploiting these anthropogenic sources of food. The aim of this research was to investigate how raven individuals vary in their use of different AFSs through space and time. I used data from a long-term GPS tracking initiative in the Upper Austrian Alps to investigate (1) the space-use of non-breeding raven individuals across this landscape to answer the questions: (2) what types of AFSs are most extensively used by ravens in this landscape, and what factors predict individual variation in AFS use (i.e., apparent reliance on and access to resources), specifically (3a) the number of AFSs visited and (3b) the probability of being at AFSs at any given point in time. Movement patterns can reveal information on the foraging decisions made by individuals, including how they use different AFSs. Individual ravens exhibited great variation in how they moved and used around the landscape. The number of AFSs visited, but not the probability of being at an AFS (at any given point in time), varied among individuals with different ranging behaviour and of different age class (i.e., juvenile and adults) and origin (i.e., captive bred and wild caught), suggesting that experience affects AFS-use. Non-breeding raven individuals differed in their use of AFSs by season visiting the highest number of AFSs but having the lowest probability being present at an AFS in winter, potentially indicative of high foraging competition under stressful environmental conditions. Individuals were also found to extensively exploit resources in spring, both visiting high numbers of AFSs and having a high probability of being present at an AFS, perhaps due to decreased competition (e.g., from breeders) and increases in food availability. The category (i.e., wildpark, refuse site, hut) of AFSs also influenced the probability of an individual being present at the site, likely because of differences in resource quality, quantity and replenishing rate. A very few foraging sites were highly popular, while over half attracted less than 5 individuals throughout the study. By exploiting AFSs, raven population numbers have increased across their range, raising conservation concerns (i.e., predation on threatened species and human-wildlife conflict). With a better understanding of the patterns of AFS-use and the factors influencing these patterns, I suggest that strategies to manage ravens in this semi-transformed, alpine environment should focus on controling the supply of food at AFSs at a regional scale.<br>The code and datasets provided complement the methods for my research, detailing the steps taken to analyse the data and produce results.