Claudina Solaro

Acoustic communication, such as bird song, is vital in animal ecology, facilitating reproduction, feeding, defense, and more. Variation in bird song may result from adaptation to environmental features such as anthropogenic noise. The vocal repertoire of raptors is essentially unstudied, particularly in urban environments. The aim of this work was...

The allocation of parental care behaviors between the sexes may be influenced by the species’ mating system, degree of sexual size dimorphism, and predictability of food resources. Biparental care (i.e., both parents contributing to raising young) has been documented in raptors, including those with minimal sexual size dimorphism and/or whose food...

Human activities, through the development of agricultural and urbanized areas, are considered a threat to wildlife species. However, there are species that can be unaffected or even benefited by these man-made scenarios. This could be the case of the chimango caracara (Milvago chimango), a raptor species that may prove to be highly adapted to anthr...

Urban sprawl is recognized to homogenize biota, with several species that fail to adapt to these new human scenarios. However, some species can live and breed successfully in urbanized habitats. We compared the breeding performance of the relatively common raptor and poorly studied, chimango caracara (Milvago chimango) in an urban gradient of centr...

Arthropod-borne viruses represent the most important emerging viruses worldwide. Saint Louis encephalitis (SLEV) and West Nile (WNV) viruses are vectored by Culex spp. mosquitoes and amplified by several bird species. We carried out an extensive retrospective serosurvey study to analyze the exposure of free-ranging raptors to SLEV and WNV in centra...

Behaviour is expected to be one of the most important factors driving urban living of bird species because it largely determines how animals interact with their environments. The contribution of different behavioural traits as facilitators of contemporary process of bird colonization of urban environments, however, is still unclear. Here we examine...

Many raptor studies require the capture of individuals and selection of the most effective trapping techniques may be crucial to achieving research goals. We assessed the effectiveness of walk-in traps to capture a very common, but poorly studied Neotropical raptor bird, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) in different environments and we eval...

Increasing human populations have accelerated urbanization and altered natural habitats. This process began in the eighteenth century with the industrial revolution when workers began moving to cities leaving agricultural jobs for jobs in manufacturing. Global growth in human populations was accompanied by growth of cities, which has increased the...

Natal dispersal is a process whereby birds move from their birthplace to the site of their first attempt at reproduction. This process has strong implications for the dynamics and genetic structure of populations. However, studies on the dispersal of neotropical birds of prey are scarce. Here we investigated the post-fledgling and natal dispersal a...

Many raptor studies require the capture of individuals and selection of the most effective trapping techniques may be crucial to achieving research goals. We assessed the effectiveness of walk-in traps to capture a very common, but poorly studied Neotropical raptor bird, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) in different environments and we eval...

Viruses transmitted by arthropods represent the most important emerging virus in the world. The Saint Louis encephalitis (SLEV) and West Nile virus (WNV) are transmitting by Culex mosquitoes as vectors and several bird species as hosts. The purpose of this research was to study the exposure of birds of prey communities for SLEV and WNV in La Pampa...

Parental care in raptors is particularly important since it can have strong implications for their ecology and reproductive success. Chimango caracara (Milvago chimango) is the most abundant and common raptor in Argentina, as it nests in a wide variety of environments, including urbanized areas. However, there are no studies describing parental car...

The mite Ornithonyssus bursa (Berlese) (Mesostigmata: Macronyssidae) is considered a poultry pest causing important infestations in chickens and it is considered a potential vector of arbovirus. Despite being considered a common parasite in wild birds, there is scarce published information about its potential hosts and effects on them. Here we pres...

En este trabajo se describe brevemente una de las líneas de investigación que se están llevando a cabo en el Departamento de Matemática de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, en relación a Métodos Multivariados Discriminantes y de Clasificación, y su sensibilidad y fiabilidad en la aplicación a difer...

Natural environments have been greatly transformed by human populations and activities and the responses of species to these changes vary. In human-dominated environments, birds may adopt behaviours that enable them to adjust to these novel habitats. We analysed the reproductive ecology of a common and human-tolerant bird of prey, the Chimango Cara...

Forty-two larvae of Argas keiransi (Acari: Argasidae) were collected from the Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango (Falconiformes: Falconidae), at three localities in La Pampa Province, Argentina. Ticks were determined by a combination of palpal segment IV as long as or longer than the other palpal segments, absence of a trumpet-shaped sensillum ext...

RESUMEN.— Se analizó la dieta de Athene cunicularia y Tyto alba en un área de ecotono entre el Monte y el Espinal en la provincia de La Pampa, Argentina. Se identificaron 747 presas de Athene cunicularia y 563 de Tyto alba, pertenecientes a las clases Mammalia, Reptilia, Amphibia, Aves, Insecta y Arachnida. Los insectos dominaron la dieta de Athene...

Infanticide and cannibalism are behaviors exhibited between individuals of the same species. Infanticide is aggressive behavior in which a mature animal kills young offspring; cannibalism is a feeding behavior exhibited by genetically related or unrelated individuals of the same species. Filial infanticide occurs when parents kill offspring in thei...

We studied the diet of Athene cunicularia and Tyto alba in an ecotonal area between Monte and Espinal in La Pampa Province, Argentina. We identified 747 prey items for Athene cunicularia and 563 for Tyto alba, corresponding to classes Mammalia, Reptilia, Amphibia, Aves, Insecta and Arachnida. Insects represented the majority of the prey items of At...

This article documents the addition of 171 microsatellite marker loci and 27 pairs of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sequencing primers to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Bombus pauloensis, Cephalorhynchus heavisidii, Cercospora sojina, Harpyhaliaetus coronatus, Hordeum vulgare, Lachnol...

This article documents the addition of 171 microsatellite marker loci and 27 pairs of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sequencing primers to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Bombus pauloensis, Cephalorhynchus heavisidii, Cercospora sojina, Harpyhaliaetus coronatus, Hordeum vulgare, Lachnol...

Although the White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) is widely distributed throughout the Americas, winter communal roosting has been recorded only in the Nearctic portion of its range. As a result, data on the food habits of the White-tailed Kite in South America during the nonbreeding season are scarce and, when available, limited to pellets from sol...