an analysis of northern goshawk prey preferences by biogeoclimatic subzone across coastal british columbia
abstract
this thesis investigates the dietary preferences of northern goshawk populations
in second growth stands on vancouver island and the islands of the johnstone strait
region on the bc mainland coast. prey abundance was inferred through the analysis of
pellets composed of regurgitated non-digested prey remains that were collected during
the annual survey monitoring program carried out by mosaic forest management and
predecessor companies since 2012. the relative abundance of prey species was
compared across three coastal western hemlock subzones (cwhvm1, cwhmm1,
cwhxm2) under the biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification (bec) system using the
chi-square test. no significant correlations were found between prey species abundance
and bec subzone (χ2 = 2.3, p = 0.32) in 2013 and (χ2 = 0.84, p = 0.66) in 2014. trends
within the dataset indicate coastal northern goshawks on vancouver island and the bc
mainland coast show a general dietary propensity towards avian prey, which is
consistent with findings from other studies. the variation in prey abundance and species
diversity reported in this study is more likely a function of topography and forest
structure, season and region than it is to bec subzones. findings from this study
highlights how younger stands could be providing more suitable habitat than was
traditionally thought.
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- undergraduate theses [325]