Jan Hušek

National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic · Department of Zoology

Decreases in the diversity of farmland communities reported at various scales and across taxonomic groups have fueled searches for ultimate reasons, primarily focusing on aspects of agricultural land use. However, the importance of individual external factors as drivers of population dynamics may vary across populations. We used density estimates o...

The quill mite fauna of the Syringophilidae family (Acariformes: Prostigmata), which is associated with palaeognathous birds of the Tinamiformes order, remains poorly studied. Thus far, only two species of syringophilid mites have been documented on four species of tinamous. In this study, we present a description of a new species, Tinamiphilopsis...

Background: Over 200 different animal species are susceptible to infection by tularemia, highly infectious disease caused by Francisella tularensis. Hares (Lepus sp.) and small rodents, such as common vole (Microtus arvalis), have been acknowledged as the most significant sources of human tularemia infection in most European countries. Our objectiv...

The northern hawk owl is a real irruptive species that respond to irregular changes in the food supply. When prey levels are adequate, it breeds and winters within northern forests. Decreased prey availability can start winter invasions, the timing and magnitude of which are the subject of this study. Mainly the citizen data were extracted from the...

We studied the quill mite fauna of the family Syringophilidae, associated with bee-eaters. We examined 273 bird specimens belonging to nine closely related species of the genus Merops, representing two phylogenetic sister clades of a monophyletic group. Our examination reveals the presence of two species of the genus Peristerophila, as follows: (1)...

Hunters in Europe gather non-survey game species population estimates to inform wildlife management, however, the quality of such estimates remains unclear. We compared estimates of game density, realized annual intrinsic growth rates, and period mean growth rates between hunter obtained data and data obtained by targeted survey methods for four sp...

Mobbing is an anti-predator strategy initiated by one or more members of prey species aiming at driving away a predator that is not undertaking an attack. Because of a continuous dispute as to whether mobbing of a top predator may indicate species richness, we tested the correlation between the number of species engaging in mobbing and avian commun...

TThe boreal forest is one of the largest terrestrial biomes on Earth. Conifers normally dominate the tree layer across the biome, but other aspects of ecosystem structure and dynamics vary geographically. The cause of the conspicuous differences in the understory vegetation and the herbivore–predator cycles between northwestern Europe and western N...

Live trapping in combination with translocation of wild animals is an important tool in wildlife management, but drivers of human trapping activity are poorly understood. Here we test three hypotheses that have been proposed to describe and explain temporal variation in group hunting-trapping effort. Namely, we test the precipitation effect, effort...

Je podvečer a sedíme na posedu. Přijde, nebo ne? Stále nic. Trpělivě čekáme a už už se chystáme to vzdát, když tu se u okraje lesa náhle objeví srnec. Je to on! Už delší dobu ho sledujeme, víme o něm a těšíme se z něho. Parůžky jsou pěkně stavěné, rovný šesterák. Bude to cenná trofej! Zisk takové trofeje je zaslouženým vy-ústěním dlouhodobých snah...

In dimorphic species, sexual habitat segregation is generally explained by the differences in nutritional needs or by a trade-off between fulfilling food requirements and avoiding predation. However, it remains unclear whether predation risk is strong enough to drive the differences in habitat use between sexes as predicted by the predation sensiti...

Length and structural complexity of antlers provide an indication of individual quality in many ungulates in the context of female mate choice and trophy hunting. Selectivity of hunters for individuals with various antler sizes may have bearing on the population structure. It is less well understood, however, whether and how antler anomalies may si...

Capsule The occurrence of oilseed rape increased main prey abundance and breeding success of Common Buzzards. Aims We tested whether the occurrence of oilseed rape influences the abundance of Common Voles, i.e. the main prey of Common Buzzards and so also nesting activity and breeding success of Common Buzzards. Methods The study was carried out in...

Huek et al. (Popul Ecol 55:363-375, 2013) showed that the numerical response of storks to vole prey was stronger in regions where variability in vole density was higher. This finding is, at first sight, in contradiction with the predictions of life-history theory in stochastic environments. Since the stork productivity-vole density relationship is...

Few studies have reported flight responses of prey on landscape slopes in the wild, and little theoretical work is available. We present a formal model to predict whether prey should move up or down the hillside after detecting a perched raptor as determined by the duration of the attack once launched by the predator, perching height of the predato...

Natal dispersal allows individuals to reach suitable breeding sites. The effect of present plant phenology as a cue for dispersal into areas with favourable stages of development has been well established across avian and mammalian taxa. However, the effect of past experience is less understood. We studied the effect of past and present phenology o...

Theory predicts that optimality of life-long investment in reproduction is, among other factors, driven by the variability and predictability of the resources. Similarly, during the breeding season, single resource pulses characterized by short periods and high amplitudes enable strong numerical responses in their consumers. However, it is less wel...

Recent research on reproduction in animals has emphasized phenology and prey matching in the long term and on large spatial scales (e.g., linked to global climate change). We studied how individuals within one reproductive cycle and at small spatial scales may try to maximize access to food resources that vary in space and time. Herbivorous mammals...

The seasonal timing of avian reproduction is supposed primarily to coincide with favourable feeding conditions. Long-term changes in avian breeding phenology are thus mostly scrutinized in relation to climatic factors and matching of the food supplies, while the role of nesting mortality is largely unexplored. Here we show that higher seasonal mean...

Site-specific effects of selected covariates on mean hatching date of the red-backed shrike. Shown are fits of linear regressions, dot-dashed line for site B, full line for site C, long-dashed line for site D. a) Effect of TMAY; site B (bTMAY = −3.86±0.77, t = −5.03, F1,2 = 25.28, p = 0.037, r2 = 0.93), site C (bTMAY = −1.68±0.36, t = −4.69, F1,29...

Site-specific temporal variability in selected breeding parameters of the red-backed shrike. Shown are fits of linear regressions with their 95% confidence intervals. Full line for site C. a) Mean hatching date (site C: byear±SE = −0.15±0.06, t = −2.43, F1,29 = 5.92, p = 0.021, r2 = 0.17), b) standardized differential between the mean hatching date...

Characteristics of the study sites in the Czech Republic. (DOC)

Results of multiple linear regression models on mean hatching date at site C. (DOC)

Associations between variables. (DOC)

Site-specific effects of selected covariates on the seasonal distribution of reproductive output of the red-backed shrike. Shown are fits of linear regressions with its 95% confidence intervals. See title of Fig. S1 and Fig. S2 for further explanations. a) The effect of mean CDDHD;. site B (bCDDHD = −0.002±0.0001, t = −11.39, F1,2 = 129.8, p = 0.00...

Summary of the breeding data in the red-backed shrike. (DOC)

Site-specific analyses. (DOC)

Availability of nest survival estimates over large spatial and temporal scales is necessary for the complex mod-elling of population dynamics. However, there may be no standardized nest monitoring schemes, as a primary source of data, for many species, locations or years. Although other potential datasets often do exist, their applicability for ana...

There are now a growing number of studies linking environmental conditions operating at different life stages of birds to their arrival on breeding grounds. Here we focus on one of the major fitness determinants; timing of breeding. We examined the influence of climate relevant to different parts of the birds' annual life cycle, and the impact of p...

Several 19th and 20th century studies on Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus brood parasitism suggest that Red-backed Shrikes Lanius collurio used to be one of its common hosts in central Europe. However, since the late 1960s parasitism ceased to occur in Red-backed Shrikes in Hungary. Using data from bird ringing records in the Czech Republic and Slovak...

Climate change has affected breeding dates and clutch sizes in many bird species. To date, most of the studies aimed at assessing the effects of climate change on these phenological events in birds have been on hole-nesting species and the changes linked either to local climate variation or to some large-scale composite variables, such as the North...

The Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) is one of the favourite species of the Czech bird ringers’ community. In this study we summarise the ringing activity on Red-backed Shrike nestlings ringed during the period 1964–2004. All ringing data on nestlings were digitalised. During the late sixties and seventies, 200–800 nestlings were ringed annually...