Petra Sumasgutner

University of Vienna | UniWien · Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle, Core Facility for Behaviour and Cognition

From an evolutionary perspective recruitment into the breeding population represents one of the most important life history stages and ultimately determines the effective population size. In order to contribute to the next generation, offspring must survive to sexual maturity, secure a territory and find a mate. In this study we explore factors inf...

Introduction Urbanization is a global phenomenon that is encroaching on natural habitats and decreasing biodiversity, although it is creating new habitats for some species. The Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is frequently associated with urbanized landscapes but it is unclear what lies behind the high densities of kestrels in the urban enviro...

Background: Black sparrowhawks (Accipiter melanoleucus) recently colonised the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, where the species faces competition for their nest sites from Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca) which frequently usurp black sparrowhawk nests. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that multiple nest building by black sparrowhawks is a...

Animals constantly need to acquire information about the environment for settlement decisions, either by using a trial-and-error strategy or by using public information by monitoring conspecifics. We studied a nest box population of Eurasian kestrels Falco tinnunculus in western Finland to test if pellets and other prey remains accumulated on the b...

The urban space is a permanently changing ecosystem, suffering from decreasing biodiversity, but also providing new anthropogenic habitats for some adaptable species. The Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is such an adaptable species, whose dense urban populations are ethologically different from rural populations in Europe. Several studies have...

Climate change and urbanisation are among the most pervasive and rapidly growing threats to biodiversity worldwide. However, their impacts are usually considered in isolation, and interactions are rarely examined. Predicting species' responses to the combined effects of climate change and urbanisation, therefore, represents a pressing challenge in...

Urban areas provide breeding habitats for many species. However, animals raised in urban environments face challenges such as altered food availability and quality, pollution, and pathogens assemblages. These challenges can affect physiological processes like immune function and antioxidant defences which are important for fitness. Here, we explore...

Climate change and urbanization are two of the most important current global change drivers. However, most studies have focused on these issues in isolation, limiting our ability to predict the impacts of the two in tandem. During hot conditions, many birds reduce foraging activity to minimise heat gain, which can result in costly trade-offs, affec...

Background Anthropogenic food sources (AFSs) are widespread in human-transformed landscapes and the current scale at which they occur drives ecological change at the individual, population, and community levels. AFSs are exploited extensively by common ravens, Corvus corax . Understanding how raven populations use AFSs can provide insight into thei...

Understanding the range and behaviour of an invasive species is critical to identify key habitat areas to focus control efforts. Patterns of range use in parasites can differ temporally, across life stages and between sexes. The invasive avian vampire fly, Philornis downsi , spends the larval stage of its life within bird nests, feeding on developi...

When different introduced species across trophic levels (parasite, predator) invade island systems, they may pose significant threats to nesting birds. In this study, we measure nesting height and infer causes of offspring mortality in the critically endangered Medium Tree Finch (Camarhynchus pauper), an island endemic restricted to Floreana Island...

The provision of anthropogenic food undoubtedly influences urban bird fitness. However, the nature of the impact is unclear, with both benefits and costs of urban diets documented. Moreover, the influence of short-term fluctuations in food availability, linked to urban weekday/weekend cycles of human presence, is largely unknown. We explored whethe...

Larger carnivores often trigger human-wildlife conflicts that arise from perceived threats to humans and domestic animals’ safety, which generate the need for management and removal strategies. These issues become especially challenging when humans and wildlife coexist close to one another, for example, in urban landscapes. African Crowned Eagles (...

Urbanisation is proceeding at an alarming rate which forces wildlife to either retreat from urban areas or cope with novel stressors linked to human presence and activities. For example, urban stressors like anthropogenic noise, artificial light at night and chemical pollution can have severe impacts on the physiology of wildlife (and humans), in p...

Most raptor populations are declining and nearly a fifth are threatened with extinction; thus there is a need to increase collaboration to ensure efficient and effective research, management, and conservation. Here, we introduce the Global Raptor Impact Network (GRIN; www.globalraptors.org), a tool to enhance collaboration and conservation impact o...

Local weather conditions may be used as environmental cues by animals to optimize their breeding behaviour, and could be affected by climate change. We measured associations between climate, breeding phenology, and reproductive output in greylag geese ( Anser anser ) across 29 years (1990–2018). The birds are individually marked, which allows accur...

In invasive parasites, generalism is considered advantageous during the initial phase of introduction. Thereafter, fitness costs to parasites, such as host-specific mortality, can drive parasites towards specialism to avoid costly hosts. It is important to determine changes in host specificity of invasive populations to understand host-parasite dyn...

The black sparrowhawk (Accipiter melanoleucus) is a color-polymorphic sub-Saharan raptor, with adults occurring in two discrete color morphs: dark and light. It has previously been suggested that plumage coloration is determined by a one-locus two-allele system, with the light allele being dominant over the dark allele. Here, we revisit that assump...

Conditions experienced during early life can have long-term individual consequences by influencing dispersal, survival, recruitment and productivity. Resource allocation during development can have strong carry-over effects onto these key parameters and is directly determined by the quality of parental care. In the black sparrowhawk (Accipiter mela...

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundr...

Globally, but especially in Africa, increasing human populations and anthropogenic land-use change are generally affecting diversity negatively. Urban environments in southern Africa typically comprise a mosaic landscape of anthropogenic infrastructure with some green spaces. These urban cities have a range of fauna that have persisted or increased...

Anthropogenic food availability is influenced by short-term fluctuations in human presence, especially in core urban areas. Few studies have explored responses to such day-to-week fluctuations, specifically on body mass and body condition of urban birds. Here, we investigated non-breeding body mass maintenance and body condition in Red-winged Starl...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-021-01884-y

Urban animal ecology is a rapidly growing research area, yielding fascinating insights into the patterns and processes that shape biodiversity in the city. However, much of this research has focused on cities in the developed world, where the mechanisms affecting biodiversity might be very different to those in the developing cities of the Global S...

Research is underway around the world to examine how a wide range of animal species have responded to reduced levels of human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this perspective article, we argue that raptors are particularly well-suited for investigating potential ‘anthropause’ effects, and that the resulting insights will provide much-need...

Guideline about the use of telemetry on birds for Austria.

Blood parasites can impact host fitness and can, thus, act as selective agents in their host’s evolution. The melanocortin system linked to colouration of vertebrates may infer higher parasite resistance via pleiotropic properties of the genes involved. Black Sparrowhawks (Accipiter melanoleucus) are colour polymorphic (dark and light morph adults)...

Urban areas can be attractive to certain species because of increased food abundance and nesting availability, which in turn may increase productivity or breeding rates. However, there are also potential costs associated with urban living such as higher nest failure, poorer body condition, or increased prevalence of disease. These costs may result...

Disassortative mating in color-polymorphic raptors is a proposed mechanism for the maintenance of color polymorphism in populations. Selection for such a mating system may occur if there are fitness advantages of mating with a contrasting morph. In the black sparrowhawk (Accipiter melanoleucus), mixed-morph pairs may have a selective advantage beca...

Human-induced climate change and the destruction of natural habitats are two of the main threats to biodiversity worldwide. Animals can use local weather conditions as environmental cues for optimal breeding conditions, but climate change can cause severe phenological mismatches. Migratory species that have a shorter time period for their settlemen...

As the world’s human population increases, transformation of natural landscapes into urban habitats continues to increase. In Africa, rates of human population growth and urbanisation are among the highest in the world, but the impacts of these processes on the continent’s biodiversity remain largely unexplored. Furthermore, the effects of ongoing...

In this study, we explore blood parasite prevalence, infection intensity, and co-infection levels in an urban population of feral pigeons Columba livia in Cape Town. We analyze the effect of blood parasites on host body condition and the association between melanin expression in the host's plumage and parasite infection intensity and co-infection l...

Within highly urban systems, anthropogenic activity often fluctuates cyclically, e.g. between weekdays and weekends. Thus, urban species may regularly experience significant changes in human activity and anthropogenic food abundance over very short time scales. Knowledge of how urban birds cope with such fluctuations may improve our understanding o...

In many vertebrates, productivity and survival usually increase with age and then start to decline above a certain age; processes known as reproductive and actuarial senescence. Senescence is widely believed to be driven by the accumulation of somatic damage or mutations. Thus, levels of such cellular damage, and therefore senescence could, in theo...

In many vertebrates, productivity and survival usually increase with age and then start to decline above a certain age; processes known as reproductive and actuarial senescence. Senescence is widely believed to be driven by the accumulation of somatic damage or mutations. Thus, levels of such cellular damage, and therefore senescence could, in theo...

To avoid predation, many species rely on vision to detect predators and initiate an escape response. The ability to detect predators may be lower in darker light conditions or with darker backgrounds. For birds, however, this has never been experimentally tested. We test the hypothesis that the response time of avian prey (feral pigeon Columbia liv...

Background: Selecting high-quality habitat and the optimal time to reproduce can increase individual fitness and is a strong evolutionary factor shaping animal populations. However, few studies have investigated the interplay between land cover heterogeneity, limitation in food resources, individual quality and spatial variation in fitness paramet...

The world is urbanising rapidly, and it is predicted that by 2050, 66% of the global human population will be living in urban areas. Urbanisation is characterised by land-use changes such as increased residential housing, business development and transport infrastructure, resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation. Over the past two decades, inter...

Africa supports breeding populations of over 20% of all raptor species globally and over 20 regular Palearctic migratory raptors. Here, we discuss the importance of Africa in terms of the diversity of both resident and migrant species, the ecosystem services they provide, and the threats they face. We examine the state of knowledge of African rapto...

Global urbanization is rapidly increasing, specifically within Africa. However, the effects of these processes on Africa's wildlife are largely unexplored. For many species, the effects are detrimental, whereas others are able to colonize these human-altered environments and can even thrive. Raptors are positioned at the top of the food chain and t...

As the world experiences rapid urban expansion, natural landscapes are being transformed into cities at an alarming rate. Consequently, urbanization is identified as one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time, yet we lack a clear understanding of how urbanization affects free-living organisms. Urbanization leads to habitat fragmentatio...

As human populations have increased globally, so too has the transformation of natural landscapes into more urban areas. Within Africa, population growth rates and urbanisation rates are amongst the highest in the world, but the impacts of these processes on Africa’s wildlife are largely un-explored. In this study, we focus on a recently establishe...

As the global trend towards urbanisation continues, the need to understand its impact on wildlife grows. Species may have different levels of tolerance to urban disturbance; some even appear to thrive in urban areas and use human-subsidised resources. However, the physiological costs and trade-offs faced by urban-dwelling species are still poorly u...

Capsule: Urban black sparrowhawk males hunt mostly within 2.27 km from their nest during the breeding season (‘home range’ of 16.15 km2) and increased the distance slightly to 2.43 km outside of the breeding season (18.56 km2). We found incredibly high individual variation within and between 6 GPS tagged males breeding, but no significant seasonal...

How multiple morphs are maintained within populations of colour polymorphic bird species remains a challenging question in evolutionary ecology. In some systems, differential productivity or survival between morphs are thought to play a role. Here we examine key demographic parameters between the two discrete adult morphs that characterise the poly...

Capsule: Local weather conditions, but not a city-associated diet composition, influence the breeding performance of urban Eurasian Kestrels Falco tinnunculus. Aims: We aim to explore the impact of diet composition, specifically a high proportion of avian prey, on the breeding performance of urban Eurasian Kestrels under different weather condition...

We modified the non-invasive technique to bleed incubating birds via the blood-sucking bug Dipetalogaster maximus in an artificial egg for an urban breeding raptor, the Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) in Vienna, Austria, in 2012. We evaluated the use of the technique for the purpose of: (1) identification of the breeding bird, (b) microsatelli...

Three species of the genus Apodemus (Wood Mouse Apodemus sylvaticus, Yellow-necked Mouse A. flavi­ collis, Herb Field Mouse A. uralensis) were studied in public parks and greeneries in the city of Vienna, Austria (1.76 million inhabitants). The study focused on niche-partitioning of these species along the urban gradient and at the habitat level. I...

The diet of Eurasian kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) was studied along an urban habitat gradient in Vienna, Austria, using pellets and prey remains collected during breeding season (2010-2011). In the urban study area of Vienna (243 km2), 103.3-122.2 breeding pairs/100 km² constitute the highest known population density documented in a non-colonial br...

The diversity, abundance and habitat of breeding raptors in the Austrian March floodplain forests, located in the border area between Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, were studied in 2008. The study area (19.7 km2) had not been explored by ornithologists until the 1990s due to the considerable flood dynamics and the subsequent limited acce...