[Use of the habitat by red partridges (Alectoris rufa L.) originating from restocking. Application of the compositional analysis]
1999
Capelo, M. | Borralho, R. | Pereira, D.C. | Carvalho, J.
Habitat utilisation by restocked red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa L.). The compositional analysis technique. In December 1995, 111 red-legged partridges were released during an experimental restocking action in a managed game estate in the South of Portugal (Alcacer do Sal). Only 9 of 23 radio-tagged individuals survived long enough to provide reliable data for the habitat use study. The compositional analysis technique was applied owing to its capacity to overcome some of the analytical pitfalls of other methods. Habitat utilisation was considered as occurring at two different spatial scales: 1 - localisation of the home-range inside the study area; 2 - habitat utilisation in the interior of the home-range. The results at the first scale indicate that the utilisation was significantly different from availability (P0.001) owing to the preference for the natural pasture compared with the pinewoods habitat. At the second scale the utilisation was proportional to availability (P0.1), with no relative preference being detected between the home-range's habitats. These results show that the home-range location choice in the study area was sufficient to satisfy to needs of the partridges during winter. Similar results were found for wild populations by other authors, confirming the low habitat selection of this specie during this period
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