Ševčík Richard, Kloubec Bohuslav, Riegert Jan, Šindelář Jiří, Kouba Marek, Zárybnická Markéta
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00, Praha - Suchdol, Czech Republic.
Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 18;12(1):4735. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08792-y.
Nest boxes represent a popular tool to support secondary cavity-nesting species. Surprisingly, the benefits and limitations of nest boxes for target species in different environments are poorly understood. We performed a 3-years experimental study in two different Central European forests to evaluate nest box use and breeding performance of boreal owl (Aegolius funereus) - a species well known for its readiness to occupy nest boxes. Based on territorial vocalisation, two boreal owl populations 200 km apart were similarly abundant in their environments. However, only the boreal owl population in young restored Norway (Picea abies) and blue (Picea pungens) spruce-dominated forests on mountain plateaus readily occupied nest boxes with the occupancy reaching 8-15%. Nest boxes lost their supporting function for the boreal owl in mature Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)-dominated forests in the lowland, where the nest box occupancy reached 0-1%. As a result, the population of boreal owls that used nest boxes in the young restored forests produced 10 times more fledglings than the population inhabiting mature Scots pine forests. We explain the differences by the contrasting availability of natural tree cavities between the two study areas being much higher in mature Scots pine forests. For the first time, this study documents differences in nest box use despite similar food availability and population size of the target species. The study provides the findings-related recommendations for deploying nest boxes for boreal owls and points out a general lack of practical guides.
巢箱是一种用于支持次生洞巢物种的常用工具。令人惊讶的是，人们对不同环境中巢箱对目标物种的益处和局限性了解甚少。我们在中欧的两片不同森林中进行了为期三年的实验研究，以评估北方小鸮（Aegolius funereus）对巢箱的使用情况和繁殖表现，北方小鸮是一种以愿意使用巢箱而闻名的物种。根据领域鸣声，相距200公里的两个北方小鸮种群在各自环境中的数量相似。然而，只有山区高原上以恢复的挪威云杉（Picea abies）和蓝云杉（Picea pungens）为主的年轻森林中的北方小鸮种群愿意使用巢箱，使用率达到8%-15%。在低地以成熟苏格兰松（Pinus sylvestris）为主的森林中，巢箱对北方小鸮失去了支持作用，巢箱使用率仅为0%-1%。结果，在恢复的年轻森林中使用巢箱的北方小鸮种群所产生的雏鸟数量比栖息在成熟苏格兰松林的种群多10倍。我们认为造成这种差异的原因是两个研究区域天然树洞的可利用性不同，成熟苏格兰松林的天然树洞可利用性要高得多。本研究首次记录了尽管目标物种的食物可利用性和种群规模相似，但巢箱使用情况存在差异。该研究为北方小鸮巢箱的部署提供了与研究结果相关的建议，并指出普遍缺乏实用指南。
