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Influence of urbanization patterns on the escape behaviour of birds
Dontová, Alena ; Mikula, Peter (advisor) ; Brlík, Vojtěch (referee)
Urbanization, i.e., the anthropogenic transformation of natural habitats into urban areas, has significant impact on the biodiversity. One of the key factors for successful animal survival in urban environments is the increase in their tolerance towards humans manifested by their decreased shyness. One of the field methods for assessing the level of the shyness across different individuals, populations, and species of animals is measuring their flight initiation distance. In this thesis, I focus primarily on birds, as their responses have been most extensively studied. Previous studies focused on differences in escape behaviour among birds mainly between urban and rural areas, and focused mainly on Europe and North America. However, human settlements vary in their history, size, population density, and other characteristics. Therefore, the observed patterns in bird behaviour may not always be universally applicable across all cities. In this thesis, through a literature review, I summarize how the escape behaviour of birds differs not only between urban and rural environments but also depending on the characteristics of human settlements, such as their size, history, degree of urbanization, the density of the local human population and the ecoregion. I found that the most important characteristics are the...
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Incubation behavior of the arctic tern Sterna paradisaea in extreme conditions of northern tundra
Hromádková, Tereza ; Pavel, Václav (advisor) ; Praus, Libor (referee)
Short breeding period and harsh climatic conditions are major limiting factors to which birds have to adapt in northern tundra regions. Despite this fact, dozen species of birds annually migrate into these regions to increase their chances to breed successfully. My diploma thesis focuses on incubation behaviour of the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea). The research for my thesis took place on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, in two particular locations: Adolfbukta and Longyearbyen. By using the method of continuous video recording, I described incubation behaviour of this specie in detail. Human activity is very different on each of Adolfbukta and Longyearbyen. On site Adolfbukta study was conducted during seasons 2012 and 2014, both with different predation pressure. Having known that, I could evaluate the impact of human activity as well as the impact of different predation pressure on incubation behaviour and breeding ecology of Arctic tern. The presence of human close to the colony had significant effect on incubation behaviour. Due to higher disturbances, incubating birds tended to leave their nests more often, attention paid to the nest was smaller and calm incubation (sleeping on the nest) was shorter by a half. Human activity had no effect on other displays such as average clutch size or...
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Incubation behavior of the arctic tern Sterna paradisaea in extreme conditions of northern tundra
Hromádková, Tereza ; Pavel, Václav (advisor) ; Praus, Libor (referee)
Short breeding period and harsh climatic conditions are major limiting factors to which birds have to adapt in northern tundra regions. Despite this fact, dozen species of birds annually migrate into these regions to increase their chances to breed successfully. My diploma thesis focuses on incubation behaviour of the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea). The research for my thesis took place on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, in two particular locations: Adolfbukta and Longyearbyen. By using the method of continuous video recording, I described incubation behaviour of this specie in detail. Human activity is very different on each of Adolfbukta and Longyearbyen. On site Adolfbukta study was conducted during seasons 2012 and 2014, both with different predation pressure. Having known that, I could evaluate the impact of human activity as well as the impact of different predation pressure on incubation behaviour and breeding ecology of Arctic tern. The presence of human close to the colony had significant effect on incubation behaviour. Due to higher disturbances, incubating birds tended to leave their nests more often, attention paid to the nest was smaller and calm incubation (sleeping on the nest) was shorter by a half. Human activity had no effect on other displays such as average clutch size or...
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