R. E. Kenward

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology | CEH

Harmonious coexistence between humans, other animals and ecosystem services they support is a complex issue, typically impacted by landscape change, which affects animal distribution and abundance. In the last 30 years, afforestation on grasslands across Great Britain has been increasing, motivated by socio-economic reasons and climate change mitig...

The Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is an emblematic species for conservation, and its decline in the British Isles exemplifies the impact that alien introductions can have on native ecosystems. Indeed, red squirrels in this region have declined dramatically over the last 60 years due to the spread of squirrelpox virus following the introd...

An animal’s home-range can be expected to encompass the resources it requires for surviving or reproducing. Thus, animals inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape, where resource patches vary in size, shape and distribution, will naturally have home-ranges of varied sizes, so that each home-range encompasses a minimum required amount of a resource. Hom...

Details and abbreviations for the 25 home-range variants used in analyses and their cores (subscripts refer to core sizes). (DOCX)

Comparison of coefficients for correlations for red squirrels and pine woodland. (DOCX)

Obtaining optimal RADA prediction for buzzards and rough ground. (TIFF)

The home range is a settled area in which an animal conducts its daily activities such as feeding, resting and breeding. Within the home range, the animal will have core areas; small regions where it spends a disproportionate amount of time. There is considerable variation in grey squirrel home range size, as ranging behaviour is influenced by a nu...

Adenovirus is an emerging threat to red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris conservation, but confirming clinically significant adenovirus infections in red squirrels is challenging. Rapid intestinal autolysis after death in wild animals frequently obscures pathology characteristic of the disease in animals found dead.We review the available literature to de...

Squirrelpox virus (SQPV) and adenovirus produce pathological disease in native red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). SQPV in particular is a significant factor in regional population declines and is generally prevalent in the UK's introduced grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) population as an asymptomatic infection. Despite the role of the grey squir...

Animal territories that differ in the availability of food resources will require (all other things being equal) different levels of effort for successful reproduction. As a consequence, breeding performance may become most strongly dependent on factors that affect individual foraging where resources are poor. We investigated potential links betwee...

This chapter compares trends in policies on land uses and economic activity to trends in ecosystem services and biodiversity in cultivated areas as well as in protected areas, using a database defined in Chapter 6. The analysis revealed associations between capacity, priority, and process variables on one hand, and impact variables on the other. Fo...

This enquiry characterises the use of information on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the environmental decision making process at the local (as opposed to national) level. Data were collected from nine case study areas, in eight countries, to explore local requirements across a range of governance systems and bioregions in EU and accession s...

In order to design TESS, it was necessary to determine how and what information is utilized across Europe when decisions affecting the environment are made at present, and which systems now in place appear to be working in terms of environmental protection and conservation. The authors used a Pan-European survey to determine not only which systems...

This chapter draws on results from previous chapters, in some cases creating new syntheses by combining information across chapters and including findings of previous projects. Its specific objective is to consolidate all these findings in the design of a system to support transaction of information for environmental assessments and decision suppor...

This chapter presents data on variation between national and local levels for information requirements, and on the pattern of data within these levels across Europe. It notes high decision-making, use, and generation of information at local level, with high variability between countries in some factors relevant to governance of environmental decisi...

Information needs of government for SEA, EIA, and other aspects of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development are studied and reported in this chapter. This includes needs related to biodiversity for land use planning, for operation of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, for agricultural policy more generally, and for Biodiversity Action...

During pilot surveys at local level, individual stakeholders and officials in local government were asked to list the main environmental issues for which they needed to make decisions, and then to select sources of information they used in each case. Overall, habitats were in the most important information topic for decisions, followed by socio-eco...

This chapter summarises the intentions, processes, and findings of the project, funded by the Commission of the European Union, to design a Transactional Environmental Support System (TESS). It provides an executive summary for the book.

A map for valuing ecosystem services in the 480 km 2 Frome catchment, to investigate scenarios of change in land use, was internet crowd-sourced. Scouts mapped deer habitats in 15% of the 30 km2 Arne Parish, while 143 residents volunteered data on deer sightings in the 5-year community survey.

Designing a Transactional Environmental Support System grew from the desire to allow citizens to exchange knowledge on local land and animals for the purpose of learning how to increase their sustainability in regards to biodiversity and livelihood. Transactional Environmental Support System Design: Global Solutions details the results of this proj...

Policy guidelines and recommendations were derived from direct and indirect sample surveys of stake-holders in most European Union countries and some others and from related analytical work. They call for rationalisation of the high level environmental assessment systems in Europe, greater sharing of data derived from them, more research into the i...

Work in the 354 km2 Municipality of Kerkini studied ways to increase ecotourism without harming rich local biodiversity, in cooperation with government, NGOs and private stakeholders. Routes were mapped for hunting, horse-riding, walking and climbing.

PCR was used to amplify adenoviral DNA, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect adenovirus particles in tissue and intestinal content samples from red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) associated with a reintroduction study on Anglesey (North Wales), from other populations on the island and from stock held at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, 38&emsp...

The demography of red and grey squirrels was studied by live-trapping and radio-tagging at 14 deciduous and conifer sites in southern Britain and at eight conifer sites for one year in northern England. Densities and productivity correlated with tree seed crops for both squirrel species in deciduous and conifer habitats. Productivity was reduced by...

Conservation scientists, national governments, and international conservation groups seek to devise, and implement, governance strategies that mitigate human impact on the environment. However, few studies to date have systematically investigated the performance of different systems of governance in achieving successful conservation outcomes. Here,...

This chapter reports the main results of GEM-CON-BIO (Governance and Ecosystems Management for the Conservation of Biodiversity), a FP6 funded project under Priority - Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-based society and highlights the path drawn by the currently ongoing FP7 project TESS (Transactional Environmental Support System). GEM-CON-BIO...

Sustainable use of wildlife is crucial to ensuring persistence of natural resources. We used age-specific survival and breeding data to parameterize a demographic model for a harvested Kazakh saker falcon (Falco cherrug) population by radiotagging juveniles and estimating adult turnover with DNA-fingerprinting during 1993–1997. We gathered similar...

We describe an automated feeding station for squirrels which identifies individuals and logs their feeding times, using passive integrated transponders (PIT tags). The system can provide or deny food to tagged individuals based on identity and/or arbitrary schedules. We test the system with wild grey squirrels Sciurus carolinensis, and report their...

We investigated the paradox of why Amazonian manatees Trichechus inunguis undergo seasonal migrations to a habitat where they apparently fast. Ten males were tracked using VHF telemetry between 1994 and 2006 in the Mamirauá and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves, constituting the only long-term dataset on Amazonian manatee movements in the wild...

To investigate why Grey squirrels strip bark from young trees, squirrel populations and tree quality were studied at 30 English Midland woods. In young beech and sycamore woodlands, the area of bark which Grey squirrels stripped from each tree was strongly related to the phloem width (volume per unit area) of the tree, and not to the phloem sugar c...

Daily gull movements between feeding and roosting sites may present a major hazard to aircraft. One option to avoid this problem is to deter gulls from using certain favoured roosting sites. This may be difficult as the gulls usually roost on water. We assessed whether a large gull roost, at a reservoir near Oxford, UK, could be moved by using tape...

Estimating the home ranges of animals from telemetry data can provide vital information on their spatial behaviour, which can be applied by managers to a wide range of situations including reserve design, habitat management and interactions between native and non-native species. Methods used to estimate home ranges of animals in spatially restricte...

Human society developed through technological revolutions. Centralisation began with agriculture. An industrial revolution then led to strongly urbanised societies. Unfortunately, agriculture, industry and urbanisation now threaten the biosphere on which humans depend. Biodiversity conservation focussed on protection until Convention on Biological...

IntroductionA concise history of falconrySources of raptors for falconryContributions to conservationConservation problems and responses in modern falconryFuture directionsAcknowledgementsNoteReferences

Squirrels cause damage by competing with man for nuts, fruit or grain crops, by competing for food with animals favoured by man, by gnawing human constructions and by stripping bark from trees grown for timber. Competition for food with man, game or livestock can best be prevented by excluding or destroying squirrels. Competition between Grey and R...

Abstract • Movements of many animals along a life-path can be separated into repetitive ones within home ranges and transitions between home ranges. We sought relationships of social and environmental factors with initiation and distance of transition movements in 114 buzzards Buteo buteo that were marked as nestlings with long-life radio tags. • E...

SUMMARY1Home-range indices, describing the area over which an animal moves or within which it concentrates its activity, are widely used in the analysis of animal movement, habitat selection, interaction and survival, the basic topics of applied animal ecology. However, the wide range of available indices and a poor understanding of their statistic...

Humans caused more than half the disturbance of wood-pigeons, Columba palumbus, from roadside brassica feeding sites. The birds always flew away from pedestrians, cyclists and horsemen, but often remained feeding when closed vehicles passed. The pigeons resettled immediately on the same feeding site after 23% of goshawk, Accipiter gentilis, attacks...

Behaviour of 26 young Common Buzzards Buteo buteo was studied by systematic radiotracking during July and August 1991. After hatching between 11 May and 18 June, the young buzzards fledged when they were 43–54 days old. Distances travelled from the nest increased abruptly after birds were 65 days old, when their flight feathers had completed growth...

Radio-tags were used to track 146 Buzzards Buteo buteo during 1990–1996. Each bird was tracked for up to 4 years; of 74 Buzzards tagged since 1992, 72% were monitored for more than 3 years. Among the 87 Buzzards tracked for more than 1 year, 46% settled after one dispersal movement, 37% dispersed and then changed their ranges, 17% did not disperse...

The movements of 96 radio-tagged juvenile Common Buzzards Buteo buteo were studied during 3 years in Dorset, southern England. Contrary to previous studies which implied that Common Buzzards are territorial, we found that 39% foraged within 1 km of the nest during their first winter, presumably within their parents' home range. Most (72%) of those...

Winglength was the most powerful intersex discriminator, giving 99.5% separation by itself and 100% combined with bodyweight or keel length. Females but not males, had longer wings and were heavier as adults than as juveniles. Pectoral fat and muscle indices explained 81–91% of variation in total fat and 93–96% of variation in total lean dry weight...

This study compares the impact of falconry and shooting in the same area on game and its distribution. We initiated a short-term assessment to test the hypotheses that falconry is more efficient than hunting with guns and that flying with birds of prey results in less game available for the gun. Rates of encountering and killing prey were compared...

The geographic range of red squirrels contracted sharply in Britain during the 1940s arid 1950s, as increasingly large areas were colonized by the congeneric North American grey squirrel. Red squirrels remain common only on offshore islands, and in the large conifer forests of northern England and Scotland. The initial replacement of red squirrels...

The Cope’s rule predicts a tendency for species to evolve towards an increase in size. Recently, it has been suggested that such a tendency is due to the fact that large body sizes provide a general increase in individual fitness. Here we highlight evidence that predator species do not always fit the large-size = high-fitness mechanism for Cop...

Radio-tagging is widely used for studies of movements, resource use and demography of land vertebrates, with potential to combine such data for predictive modelling of populations from individuals. Such modelling requires standard measures of individual space use, for combination with data on resources, survival, dispersal and breeding. This paper...

Radio-tagging is widely used for studies of movements, resource use and demography of land vertebrates, with potential to combine such data for predictive modelling of populations from individuals. Such modelling requires standard measures of individual space use, for combination with data on resources, survival, dispersal and breeding. This paper...

This paper investigates factors limiting breeding densities in populations of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis gentilis) in western, central, and southern Europe. We review the current status of the species and describe major population trends during the last century. Large-scale trends in numbers coincided with marked changes in the external e...

Whether predators can limit their prey has been a topic of scientific debate for decades. Traditionally it was believed that predators take only wounded, sick, old or otherwise low-quality individuals, and thus have little impact on prey populations. However, there is increasing evidence that, at least under certain circumstances, vertebrate predat...

Summary • Kernel-density estimation (KDE) is one of the most widely used home-range estimators in ecology. The recommended implementation uses least squares cross-validation (LSCV) to calculate the smoothing factor (h) which has a considerable influence on the home-range estimate. • We tested the performance of least squares cross-validated kernel-...

1Dispersal is regarded as critical to the stability of existing populations and the spread of invading species, but empirical data on the effect of travelling conditions during the transfer phase are rare. We present evidence that both timing and distance of ex-natal dispersal in buzzards (Buteo buteo) are strongly affected by weather.2Dispersal wa...

Age-specific survival and breeding (ASSAB) models were developed with data from 146 common buzzards (Buteo buteo) radio-tagged in southern Britain during 1990–1998, in a 120-km2 study area that had on average 25 egg-laying pairs. Survival checks were aided by philopatric behaviour and a maximum annual tag failure rate of 7%: minimum survival rates,...

The expansion of populations into new areas is dependent upon dispersal distances and the ability of colonists to find mates. These factors interact through the spatial distribution of individuals. We develop a mechanistic, spatially explicit model to investigate the interaction between dispersal distances and mate finding in expanding populations....

1. Age-specific survival and breeding (ASSAB) models were developed with data from 318 goshawks (Accipiter gentilis L.) fitted during 1980–7 on the Baltic island of Gotland with tail-mounted radio-tags. 2. Comparisons with recaptures and recoveries of 238 ringed juveniles without radio-tags detected no marking bias among hawks radio-tagged at nests...

This chapter provides a thorough review of the analysis of wildlife radio-tracking data. The use of radio tags, small enough for wildlife, depended on the development of the transistor, which reduces the power and hence the battery mass needed for radio transmitters. The first wildlife tags followed the radiotelemetry of physiological data from hum...

Summary • Information on the effects of wildlife predation on game and livestock is required to allow improved management of all organisms involved. Monitoring of prey, predators and predation mechanisms each suggests important methods, illustrated here by data from common buzzards Buteo buteo and ring-necked pheasants Phasianus colchicus. • Locati...

Methods used to estimate home ranges from point locations are based either on densities of locations or on link distances between locations. The density-based methods estimate ellipses and contours. The other class minimizes sums of link distances, along edges of polygons or to range centers or between locations. We propose a new linkage method, us...

Many studies have concluded that buzzards, Buteo buteo, are strongly territorial but a minority have suggested that some buzzards can share ranges. We radiotracked 146 buzzards from fledging for up to 4 years. In their first year, distances of buzzards from the nearest nest were least if it was their natal nest. To determine if this represented pos...

Backpack radio-tags can be used to monitor survival of raptors for several years after fledging, but may reduce survival if a poor fit results from subjective judgments. We present an attachment method that can use bird measurements to predict harness sizes. Relationships between body mass of Saker Falcons and harness size predicted the size for sm...

In order to test whether Common Buzzards Buteo buteo that dispersed early were entrepreneurs or exiles, we determined standardised autumn ranges by radio-tracking 67 juveniles during 1990-94. Of these, 11 had dispersed more than 2 km from their natal nest, and had therefore left the natal territory. Buzzards that dispersed early had more fragmented...

DNA fingerprinting of nestlings of Falco cherrug was used to determine indirectly the survival of the corresponding adult parent birds, which are difficult to catch in sufficient numbers. This approach is possible because Saker falcons show a high degree of site and mate tenacity. DNA profiles of nestlings from the same territory but from different...

Attaching radio-tags to highly dynamic organisms can bias the data collected. The nature and extent of any bias should be understood and quantified. This is vital with an untested attachment method or when tagging a new species or age-class. The suitability of a new back-pack harness design was field tested on 39 adult thrushes (33 Blackbird Turdus...

1. Home-range indices, describing the area over which an animal moves or within which it concentrates its activity, are widely used in the analysis of animal movement, habitat selection, interaction and survival, the basic topics of applied animal ecology. However, the wide range of available indices and a poor understanding of their statistical pr...

Large raptors have probably been seen as a nui- sance since the dawn of stock farming. Accusations are sometimes unjustified, in that most large rap- tors are opportunistic scavengers. For example, more than one careful analysis has shown that lambs at nests of eagles (Aquila) were almost all scavenged. Nevertheless, other studies have docu- mented...

Patients with dementia who go out unaccompanied are at risk of accidents or getting lost. It is not known whether they could benefit from electronic tracking devices or whether such devices are practically feasible. The likely demand for an electronic tracking device was assessed by means of a telephone survey of a convenience sample of 99 carers....

The need to describe the relative intensity with which an animal uses different parts of its home range has been recognized for at least half a century. Such descriptions are particularly important for wide-ranging raptors with home ranges covering a variety of habitats. In studies of many taxa, the description of internal range structure is addres...

The demography of red and grey squirrels was studied by live-trapping and radio-tagging at 14 deciduous and conifer sites in southern Britain and at eight conifer sites for one year in northern England. Densities and productivity correlated with tree seed crops for both squirrel species in deciduous and conifer habitats. Productivity was reduced by...

The demography of red and grey squirrels was studied by live-trapping and radio-tagging at 14 deciduous and conifer sites in southern Britain and at eight conifer sites for one year in northern England. Densities and productivity correlated with tree seed crops for both squirrel species in deciduous and conifer habitats. Productivity was reduced by...

Fourteen radio-tagged red squirrels were released in pine woodland containing grey squirrels. Movements of the squirrels were related to the tree species of the donor site. Survival after release was lower than for the grey squirrels: of 11 red squirrels that survived at least a week, only three survived more than three months and none for four mon...

To investigate fledging behaviour and proximate causes of dispersal, 221 radio-tagged goshawks were studied in the post-nestling period during 1980-1987. Offspring left the nest tree from 39 days after hatching. Only 2% of observations were more than 300 m from the nest when hawks were 40-65 days old, while they finish growing their main flight fea...

Relationships between juvenile male and female goshawks, Accipiter gentilis , were studied in 130 fledged broods, in which 187 young hawks were radio-tagged during 1980-1984. The proportion of the smaller male goshawks was least at fledging in broods that had lost most young, possibly because of siblicide by females. Males dispersed at an earlier a...