Predation on Artificial Nests in Hurricane- Created Gaps and Adjacent Forest of the Southern Appalachians

Alxtruct: Predation rates were compared during three 7-day trials on 742 artificial ground nests located in 10 hurricane-created canopy gaps and IO adjacent closed-canopy controls in the southern Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. White northern bobwhite (Cdinus virginianus) eggs were used in trials 1 and 2, but brown-speckled Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturr~ix) eggs were used in trial 3 to determine: (1) whether artificial ground nests were at a greater risk of predation in gaps than in adjacent closed-canopy forest; (2) whether predation rates increased with successive trials and; (3) whether egg color affected predation rates. Horizontal shrub cover and vertical shrub density up to 1.5 m were greater in gaps than in controls. Seventy percent of artificial nests were depredated, but predation rates ranged from 0-100% among sites and trials in both gaps and controls. Predation rates did not differ between gaps and controls. However, predation rate increased from trial 1 to trials 2 and 3. Egg color did not influence predation rates of artificial nests. Vertical shrub density deterred nest predation in gaps (but not controls), in trials 1 and 2, but had little effect by trial 3. Forest fragmentation by canopy gaps did not adversely affect nesting success of groundnesting birds, as measured by predation rates of artificial ground nests.