Movements and habitat use by ring ouzels in El Teide National Park: Conservation implications for a relict plant-frugivore system

Knowledge on the movement ecology of frugivorous animals with unique or dominant roles in ecosystems is essential to understand the spatial extent of their seed dispersal services and to inform conservation actions. In El Teide National Park (Canary Islands), remnants of a past woodland dominated by Canary junipers (Juniperus cedrus) persist nowadays in craggy areas where they escaped human impact until this high mountain ecosystem was legally protected in the mid-20th century. Remarkably, seed dispersal of this relict woodland largely depends on a small wintering population of ring ouzels (Turdus torquatus). We combined GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite tracking of individual ring ouzels with high-resolution habitat data to investigate their movement patterns and habitat selection, with the aim of informing actions for the conservation of this endangered plant-frugivore system. We showed that ring ouzels remain in the National Park during the winter, exhibiting a range-resident behaviour within a few hundred hectares. Most relevant movements for seed dispersal (95 %) were under 1176 m, and only 1 % reached distances between 1905–2742 m. Importantly, space use was strongly linked to juniper cover and proximity to permanent water sources, while unvegetated flat areas were avoided. Our findings indicate that ring ouzels can play a crucial role dispersing seeds at substantial distances within juniper remnants but, in contrast, their dispersal contribution beyond or between remnants appears to be very rare or negligible. Finally, our results suggest that, in addition to active restoration of the juniper woodland, the provision of water sources is an essential management action to support ring ouzels’ activity and, potentially, to direct their seed-dispersal services.

This study has been partially financed by a Spanish Juan de la Cierva Incorporación fellowship (IJCI-2017–33475), a grant for emerging projects from the Universidad de Oviedo (PAPI-19-EMERG-24), an OTRI contract funded by Tragsa (OT2021/013) and an I+D+I project (PID2022–142421NB-I00) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU. BR was supported by the above mentioned IJCI-2017–33475 fellowship and a postdoctoral grant from the University of Cádiz (UCA/REC17VPCT/2021). JPG-V was supported by a Spanish Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017–22095).The open access fee was co-funded by the QUALIFICA Project (QUAL21-0019, Junta de Andalucía).

Peer reviewed