Data from: The secret life of oilbirds: new insights into the movement ecology of a unique avian frugivore

Holland RA, Wikelski M, Kuemmeth F, Bosque C. 2012. Data from: The secret life of oilbirds: new insights into the movement ecology of a unique avian frugivore. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq

Abstract

Background: Steatornis caripensis (the oilbird) is a very unusual bird. It supposedly never sees daylight, roosting in huge aggregations in caves during the day and bringing back fruit to the cave at night. As a consequence a large number of the seeds from the fruit they feed upon germinate in the cave and spoil. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we use newly developed GPS/acceleration loggers with remote UHF readout to show that several assumptions about the behaviour of Steatornis caripensis need to be revised. On average, they spend only every 3rd day in a cave, individuals spent most days sitting quietly in trees in the rainforest where they regurgitate seeds. Conclusions/Significance: This provides new data on the extent of seed dispersal and the movement ecology of Steatornis caripensis. It suggests that Steatornis caripensis is perhaps the most important long-distance seed disperser in Neotropical forests. We also show that colony-living comes with high activity costs to individuals.

Keywords

Steatornis caripensis, animal tracking, GPS logger, oilbirds, seed dispersal, Steatornis caripensis, Venezuela

Taxa

Taxon

Steatornis caripensis

Oilbird

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008264

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.269

BibTex

@misc{001/1_35fs26kq,
  title = {Data from: The secret life of oilbirds: new insights into the movement ecology of a unique avian frugivore},
  author = {Holland, RA and Wikelski, M and Kuemmeth, F and Bosque, C},
  year = {2012},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq
T1  - Data from: The secret life of oilbirds: new insights into the movement ecology of a unique avian frugivore
AU  - Holland, Richard A.
AU  - Wikelski, Martin
AU  - Kuemmeth, Franz
AU  - Bosque, Carlos
Y1  - 2012/03/15
KW  - Steatornis caripensis
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - oilbirds
KW  - seed dispersal
KW  - Steatornis caripensis
KW  - Venezuela
KW  - Steatornis caripensis
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.35fs26kq
ER  -

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