DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tht76hf7v
title: Data for analysis of variables influencing breeding success in the Canarian houbara

description: Precipitation is one of the main triggers of reproduction in
 desert-breeding birds. The unpredictability of rainfall patterns in arid
 environments has led species to adapt their breeding effort to episodes of
 abundant food after rainfall. The response is not the same for all
 individuals in a population, and may vary especially with the age and
 experience of each female. Here we investigate the effects of
 precipitation, temperature, body size and breeding experience, among other
 variables, on reproductive parameters of 20 females of Canarian houbara
 bustard (Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae), an endangered desert bird
 endemic of the eastern Canary Islands. Precipitation and breeding
 experience were the main determinants of female breeding performance.
 Higher rainfall determined an increase in nesting rate, and earlier autumn
 rains caused an advancement of nesting to October, allowing the breeding
 season to be extended to eight months. This favoured an extraordinary
 increase in productivity in more rainy breeding seasons, with 15 times
 more females nesting in the two most rainy winters than in dry years. In
 addition, females with more breeding experience showed a higher tendency
 to breed, higher nest attempt and fledging success, and longer breeding
 season, which allowed them to rear more chicks. A female even double
 brooded successfully in the same season, which, considering that chicks
 remain with the mother for up to six months, indicates a great capacity to
 optimise reproductive investment, by adapting to highly variable rainfall
 regimes. In recent decades, the eastern Canary Islands have undergone a
 process of aridification, and climate models predict a medium-term
 increase in the frequency and duration of drought periods. Thus, Canarian
 houbaras are particularly vulnerable to climate change, so measures are
 urgently needed to reduce their mortality and improve the quality of their
 habitat, in order to favour their reproduction and prevent their
 extinction. 
description: We used 5-year breeding phenology and breeding success data from
 20 female houbara bustards captured in Lanzarote and equipped with
 backpack-mounted GSM/GPRS data loggers. The influence
 of predictor variables on breeding parameters was modeled by means of
 generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) using package “lme4” (Bates et al.
 2015) in R v.2.15.1 (R Development Core Team, 2015).
description: # databases used for statistical analyses in manuscript WLB-2024-01345
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tht76hf7v](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tht76hf7v) ## Description of the data and file structure **List of excel files used for GLMMs and other analyses in manuscript WLB-2024-01345.R1 – “Precipitation and female experience are major determinants of the breeding performance of Canarian houbara bustards”** ### Files and variables #### File: GLM2b2NestInitiatDate.xlsx **Description:** ** database for GLMM Nest Initiation Date (NIDF, see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * definitions as in other excel files #### File: GLM4aNestAttemptSuccess.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Nest Attempt Success (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * clutchOrder: order of the clutch (1 first, 2 second –replacement-, 3 third –replacement-clutch), chicksSurvived: chicks survived until productivity control (1= yes/0= no, see Methods), MeanTemp: during 23 days incubation + 2 months in nestings that have chicks on the control date, AvMaxTemp: average maximum temperature during 23 days incubation + 2 months in nestings that have chicks on the control date, AvMinTemp: average minimum temperature during 23 days incubation + 2 months in nestings that have chicks on the control date, pp: precipitation during 23 days incubation + 2 months in nestings that have chicks on the control date, other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: GLM4bFledSuccess.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Fledging Success (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * Variables:** **pp: precipitation during** **23 days since nesting start + 2 months in nestings that have chicks on the control date; 23+1 month, in nestings that do not have chicks on the control date, other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: GLM5ReClutchProb.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Re-clutching Probability (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * Variables: Reclutch: 1= has a replacement clutch/0= does not have a replacement clutch, DurationIncubation: duration of the incubation period (days), MeanTemp, AvMaxTemp, AvMinTemp, pp: measured over the incubation period, other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: Weighted\_precipitations.xlsx **Description:** **databases to calculate weighted precipitation amounts, periods of precipitation and nestings (see Methods for details)** ##### Variables * definitions as in other excel files #### File: GLM6a3FemaleProductivity.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Productivity (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * nClutches: number of clutches (1,2,3), NchicksSurvived (1,2 up to fledging), pp2: precipitation measured from one month before the first laying to the laying date of the last clutch, other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: GLM6bFemaleProductivity.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Productivity (as GLM6a, but measuring precipitation over the same period for all years: from 1 September to 13 March [mean hatching start date of the latest year, which was 2022]; see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * as in GLM6a3FemaleProductivity.xlsx, but measuring precipitation over the same period for all years: from 1 September to 13 March [mean hatching start date of the latest year, which was 2022; other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: GLM7aLengthBreedSeason.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Length of the Breeding Season (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * daysBreeding: duration of the breeding season in days (see definition in Methods), temperature and precipitation (PP) measured from 1 month before the first day of incubation of that year in any female until the date of independence of the last chick (see Azar et al 2018: Total rainfall during the nesting period (the period between the first and last nest found each year). other variables as defined in other excel files #### File: GLM7bLengthBreedSeason.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Length of the Breeding Season, same as GLM7aLengthBreedSeason.xlsx, but precipitation and temperature measured over an equal period for all years: from 1 September to 13 March (= average hatching starting date of the latest year, 2022) (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * as in GLM7aLengthBreedSeason.xlsx, but precipitation and temperature measured over an equal period for all years: from 1 September to 13 March #### File: WeightedPrecipitationPeriods.xlsx **Description:** **database to calculate weighted precipitation periods and nestings (see Methods for details)** ##### Variables * as in other excel files #### File: GLM2cNestInitiatDate.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Nest Initiation Date of First Clutches (NIDF2, see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * definitions as in other excel files #### File: GLM1bNestingRate.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Nesting Rate (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * indiv= individual female, year, femaleNests: 1=Yes/0=No, startNest = date when nesting started, pp30days: precipitation on the 30 days before (in mm), pp60ays: precipitation on the 60 days before (in mm), pp90days: precipitation on the 90 days before (in mm), TempMean30days: mean temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMax30days: maximum temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMin30days: minimum temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMean60days: mean temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), TempMax60days: maximum temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), TempMean60days: mean temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), Weight: weight of the female (g), PC1p: Principal Component 1 of the PCA including weight, PC1sinP: Principal Component 1 of the PCA excluding weight, Breedingexperience: breeding experience of the female, as defined in Methods. #### File: GLM1cNestingRate2.xlsx **Description:**  ##### Variables * indiv= individual female, year, femaleNests: 1=Yes/0=No, startNest = date when nesting started, pp30days: precipitation on the 30 days before (in mm), pp60ays: precipitation on the 60 days before (in mm), pp90days: precipitation on the 90 days before (in mm), TempMean30days: mean temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMax30days: maximum temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMin30days: minimum temperature on the 30 days before (in oC), TempMean60days: mean temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), TempMax60days: maximum temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), TempMean60days: mean temperature on the 60 days before (in oC), Weight: weight of the female (g), PC1p: Principal Component 1 of the PCA including weight, PC1sinP: Principal Component 1 of the PCA excluding weight, Breedingexperience: breeding experience of the female, as defined in Methods, pp_1sep_13mar: precipitation measured between 1st September and 13th March, T_1sep_13mar: temperature measured between 1st September and 13th March #### File: GLM2a2NestInitiatDate.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Nest Initiation Date (NIDF, see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * ordinalDate: Ordinal date as defined in Methods, rest of variables: definitions as in other excel files #### File: GLM3HatchSuccess.xlsx **Description:** **database for GLMM Hatching Success (see Supplementary Table S3)** ##### Variables * : endNest: date when incubation finished, ppIncub: precipitation during incubation (23 days since start incubation), AvMaxTempIncub: average maximum temperature during incubation, AvMaxTempIncub: average maximum temperature during incubation, ppIncub: mean temperature during incubation, hatchSuccess: 1= incubation until hatching date is successful/ 0= incubation until hatching date is not successful, rest of variables: definitions as in other excel files ## Code/software data can be viewed using EXCEL; other files from the process of statistical analysis were obtained using package “lme4” (Bates et al. 2015) in R v.2.15.1 (R Development Core Team, 2015)