The effects of egg crypticness and forest fragmentation on depredation of artificial nests.

Abstract

In our study, we examined the effect of crypticness and forest fragmentation on the depredation of artificial ground nests. This study examines the factors that might affect ground bird hatching success in the future. Two sets of artificial nests, white and cryptic, were placed in varying habitats--open, edge, interior--within different ecosystem types. Our first hypothesis was that white nests would be depredated more than cryptic nests. Secondly, we believed that nests in the open would be depredated more than those in the edge or interior. Our results showed that crypticness was found to have a significant effect by decreasing the depredation of those nests. We also found that depredation did not significantly vary between habitat types.