Effects of habitat on prey delivery rate and prey species composition of breeding barn owls in winegrape vineyards

摘要: Abstract The provision of habitat for natural enemies agricultural pests is common in integrated pest management approaches but has rarely been examined vertebrate predators controlling pests. To mitigate the economic and environmental costs removing rodent vineyards Napa Valley, California, winegrape producers have installed nest boxes to attract American barn owls (Tyto furcata) their properties. A rigorous estimate how many rodents remove from landscape a necessary first step understanding overall impact on populations, this study provides an removal prey composition by using remote box cameras. In addition, we tested hypotheses may influence delivery rates composition. Videography indicated that each owl chick received average 191 ± 10.01 items before fledging amount grassland near proportion deliveries smaller were positive predictors rate. Prey was dominated voles, gophers, mice, relative proportions associated with habitats box. Specifically, oak savannah positively gophers negatively voles. Further research should focus possible roles abundance, adult quality, additional metrics structure.