Contributions of satellite telemetry to the conservation of White-crowned Pigeons throughout the Caribbean
A project of Avian Research and Conservation Inst in conjunction with the partners and sponsors detailed below.
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| Name | Species | Life Stage | Release Date | Last Location | Days Transmitted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Pine #1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-09-01 | 2017-11-21 | 812 |
| Big Pine #2 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-09-02 | 2017-09-05 | 734 |
| Cayman #1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Sub-adult | 2013-11-16 | 2016-02-10 | 816 |
| Cayman #2 | White-crowned Pigeon | Sub-adult | 2013-11-17 | 2013-12-23 | 36 |
| Long Beach #1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Sub-adult | 2015-10-06 | 2016-02-10 | 127 |
| Long Beach #2 | White-crowned Pigeon | Sub-adult | 2015-10-08 | 2016-02-28 | 143 |
| New Providence 1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2014-05-03 | 2014-07-31 | 89 |
| New Providence 1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2014-05-03 | 2017-07-20 | 1174 |
| New Providence 2 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2014-05-05 | 2014-12-20 | 229 |
| PR Naguabo #1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-07-17 | 2017-03-17 | 609 |
| PR Vega Baja #1 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-06-24 | 2018-01-31 | 952 |
| PR Vega Baja #2 | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-06-24 | 2017-12-01 | 891 |
| Southern Glades | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2015-08-27 | 2018-04-23 | 970 |
| Trelawny | White-crowned Pigeon | Sub-adult | 2014-02-05 | 2018-04-22 | 1537 |
| West | White-crowned Pigeon | Adult | 2013-09-04 | 2015-10-16 | 772 |
Click on an animal's name for maps and more information.
Introduction
Seasonal movements of White-crowned Pigeons tracked by satellite telemetry: Identifying trans-national threats, management needs, and conservation opportunities throughout the Caribbean.
The White-crowned Pigeon is a wary, tropical fruit eating species restricted to the Caribbean Basin, the Bahamas, and extreme southern Florida. These birds are the primary seed dispersers for the increasingly threatened West Indian hardwood-hammock plant community. White-crowned Pigeons are migratory, making long over-water flights between breeding and wintering areas throughout their range, but wintering destinations of specific breeding populations are poorly known and migratory flights apparently take these birds to a wide range of destinations relative to their nesting locale.
Within the Caribbean region, the White-crowned Pigeon is widely distributed but threatened due to hunting, poaching, and loss of essential habitats. With the use of satellite telemetry we are determining the annual, range-wide movements of adult White-crowned Pigeons from representative breeding populations. This study will inform wildlife managers of the seasonal changes in distribution, threats, and survival that dictate the conservation needs of this highly-mobile and widely-hunted species.
Project Partners
Project coordinators: ARCI (Ken Meyer and Gina Kent), BirdsCaribbean (Lisa Sorenson), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Frank Rivera-Milan)
Collaborators: National Trust for the Cayman Islands (Paul Watler et al.)
Jamaica National Environment and Planning Agency (Ricardo Miller)
Bahamas National Trust (David Knowles, Denny Moore)
Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (Alexis Martinez)
Instituto de Ecologia y Sistematica, Cuba (Lourdes Mujica and Martin Acosta)
Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tom Wilmers)
Project Sponsors
This project is funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including support from the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex, and a grant from Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act.
