Climatic variation affects seasonal survival of an alpine bird species
Submitted by editor on 25 November 2024.We studied willow ptarmigan in a montane landscape in Lierne municipality in central Norway. During the study we captured and marked a total of 272 willow ptarmigan from 2015 to 2021. To capture the birds, we approached them from snowmobiles during the winter night, dazzled them with spotlights and then captured them with dip-nets. We then equipped the captured birds with a VHF transmitter with approximately 30 months battery life, and monitored them by use of VHF triangulation by foot, skis, or snowmobile, and occasionally by aircraft. This method enabled us to track the survival of individual birds throughout the study period.
Categories:
General