Vulture roosting site selection
We analyzed how various local and landscape features affect roosting attendance of black vultures and turkey vultures to better understand vulture roosting site selection and landscape use.
This research has been published in Urban Ecosystems and can be found here!
Where are vultures choosing to roost and why?
Urban areas offer various resources to vulture populations but also present many threats. I am interested in evaluating the complex relationship between vultures and humans, which includes where the vultures choose to live in urban and rural landscapes, and why.
To better understand the impacts of urbanization on vulture populations, we examined how local and landscape features affect roost attendance of black and turkey vultures in the Charlotte Metropolitan Area.
What have we found?
We surveyed 29 vulture roosts over two years, for a total of 210 roost surveys!
Vultures are roosting at sites with little open space surrounding roosts in landscapes with fewer edges between developed and forested landcover near water.
Developed landcover itself does not appear to be a primary factor in vulture roosting attendance.