Clever lapwings use cover to hide in plain sight - University of Exeter
Ground-nesting birds called lapwings use the shape of their nests and surroundings to hide from predators, new research shows.
Many ground-nesting species are in decline due to changes in land management and high populations of predators, such as foxes and crows. Conservation projects can fail because too many eggs and chicks are eaten.
The new study, led by the University of Exeter, assessed the visibility of lapwing nests in terms of cover (also called “occlusion”) and camouflage using models that simulate the vision and viewing angles of various predators.
The findings showed that despite nesting in open fields, lapwings can hide their eggs by using small variations in the terrain, making them invisible to ground predators such as foxes from anything more than around 1.5 metres away.
“Like children playing hide and seek, lapwings use cover to complement their camouflage,” said lead author George Hancock, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall. “If a nest is properly concealed in this way, it doesn’t matter how good a predator’s vision is – they simply won’t be able to see it until they are nearly on top of it. Nests and eggs are also camouflaged – blending in with their surroundings by matching their backgrounds colour and pattern – but it appears this is a secondary defence.”
By providing habitats that compliment lapwing camouflage, Hancock said conservation managers could use “nature’s toolkit” – in addition to direct predator control – to help lapwings breed successfully.
The paper, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, is entitled: “Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground-nesting bird’s clutch to terrestrial predators.”
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Posted On: 15/09/2023