Keywords
pests
pollution
urban birds
urban species
Abstract
The Rock pigeon (Columba livia) is a common species in urban parks of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica, where control campaigns have failed and little is known about the bird’s populations. Our goals were to compare population size in 2020 with our own estimates from 2014, and to evaluate several hypotheses about possible effects of infrastructure and anthropic use on the pigeons. We visited seven urban parks in 2014-2015 and 2019-2020, counting birds with the Panoramic Photographs Method. We analyzed an infrastructure variable (vegetation cover) and three anthropic variables (visitors, feeding and pigeon feed vendors). Over time, there was a pigeon population increase in Alajuela Central Park, a decrease in Plaza de la Cultura, and no change in the other five parks. We found positive correlations between the pigeon population, feeding events and presence of feed vendors. Changes in the population size of C. livia reflect the availability of food directly and indirectly provided by humans.
References
Araya Díaz DF y Rojas Rodríguez MF (2013) Plazas, parques y avenidas de San José, Costa Rica. Segunda mitad del siglo XIX e inicios del siglo XX. Revista Arquis 2:1-18
Baldaccini NE (2020) The synanthropic status of wild rock doves (Columba livia) and their contribution to feral pigeon populations. Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia - Research in Ornithology 90:51-56
Barrientos Z y Seas C (2018) An improved method to estimate pigeon populations in urban areas. Cuadernos de Investigación, UNED Research Journal 10:41-47
Batool F, Khan HA y Saif-ur-Rehman M (2020) Feeding ecology of blue rock pigeon (Columba livia) in the three districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Brazilian Journal of Biology 80:881-890
Cabalceta A y Barrientos Z (2019) Tradición: una nueva razón para alimentar las palomas urbanas (Columba livia; Columbiformes: Columbidae) y cómo controlarlas de manera sostenible. Cuadernos de Investigación, UNED Research Journal 11:361-368
Capoccia S, Boyle C y Darnell T (2018) Loved or loathed, feral pigeons as subjects in ecological and social research. Journal of Urban Ecology 4:1-6
Carr R (2017) XLStatistics: Excel workbooks for statistical analysis. Versión 17-02-16. (URL: https://www.deakin.edu.au/individuals-sites/?request=~rodneyc/XLStatistics.r)
Consejo Nacional de Planificación Urbana (CNPU) (2013) PlanGAM 2013. San José, Costa Rica: Ministerio de Vivienda y Asentamientos Humanos (MIVAH)
Coogan SCP, Raubenheimer D, Zantis SP y Machovsky-Capuska GE (2018) Multidimensional nutritional ecology and urban birds. Ecosphere 9:e02177
De la Ossa J, De la Ossa-Lacayo A y Monroy-Pineda M (2017) Abundancia de paloma doméstica (Columba livia domestica Gmelin, 1789) en Santiago de Tolú, Sucre, Colombia. Revista MVZ Córdoba 22(1):5718-5727
Dolz G, Solórzano-Morales A, Angelova L, Tien C, Fonseca L y Bonilla MC (2013) Chlamydia psittaci genotype B in a pigeon (Columba livia) inhabiting a public place in San José, Costa Rica. Open Veterinary Journal 3:135-139
Fallas-Solano A (2018) Tamaño y vegetación de parques urbanos en el cantón central de San José, Costa Rica. Cuadernos de Investigación, UNED Research Journal 10:13-20
Ferman LM, Peter HU y Montalti D (2010) A study of feral pigeon Columba livia var. in urban and suburban areas in the city of Jena, Germany. Arxius Miscellanea Zoologica 8:1-8
Fernández-Maldonado VN, Gorla DE y Borghi CE (2017) Características del paisaje que influyen en la selección de sitios de nidificación de Columba livia y Patagioenas maculosa en una ciudad de desierto en América del Sur. El Hornero 32:257-268
Ferreira VL, Dias RA y Raso TF (2016) Screening of Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) for pathogens of veterinary and medical importance. Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science 18:701-704
Giunchi D, Albores-Barajas YV, Baldaccini NE, Vanni L y Soldatini C (2012) Feral pigeons: problems, dynamics and control methods. En: Larramendy LM y Soloneski S (Eds.) Integrated pest management and pest control: current and future tactics, 215-240. Rijeka, Croacia: InTechOpen
Lowry R (2022) VassarStats: Website for statistical computation. (URL: http://vassarstats.net/)
Méndez-Mancera VM, Villamil-Jiménez LC, Buitrago-Medina DA y Soler-Tovar D (2013) La paloma (Columba livia) en la transmisión de enfermedades de importancia en salud pública. Revista Ciencia Animal 1:177-194
Przybylska K, Haidt A, Myczko L, Ekner-Grzyb A, Rosin ZM, Kwiecinski Z, Tryjanowski P, Suchodolska J, Takacs V, Jankowiak L, Tobolka M, Wasielewski O, Graclik A, Krawczyk AJ, Kasprzak A, Szwajkowski P, Wylegala P, Malecha AW, Mizera T y Skorka P (2012) Local and landscape-level factors affecting the density and distribution of the Feral Pigeon Columba livia var. domestica in an urban environment. Acta Ornithologica 47:37-45
R Development Core Team (2022) The R project for statistical computing. (URL: https://www.r-project.org/about.html)
Ramírez O, Amador M, Camacho L, Carranza IJ, Chaves E, Moya A, Vega M, Verdesia J y Quiros W (2008) Conocimiento popular de la paloma de Castilla (Columba livia) en el Parque Central de Alajuela. Zeledonia 12:14-19
Ramírez-Alán O, De la O-Castro J, Bolaños-Picado D y Mc Queen-Blanco JK (2017) Evaluación de la abundancia relativa y percepción de la presencia de palomas Columba livia (Columbiformes: Columbidae) en la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica. Uniciencia 31:29-38
Rodríguez-Yáñez JE, Rivera-Fernández E, Alvarado-González D, Abdalah-Hernández M y Quirós-Quirós R (2021) Prediction of atmospheric corrosion from meteorological parameters: Case of the atmospheric basin of the Costa Rican Western Central Valley. Atmósfera 36:171-182
Senar JC, Montalvo T, Pascual J y Peracho V (2017) Reducing the availability of food to control feral pigeons: changes in population size and composition. Pest Management Science 73:313-317
Senar JC y Sol D (1991) Censo de palomas Columba livia var. de la ciudad de Barcelona: Aplicación del muestreo estratificado con factor de corrección. Butlleti del Grup Català d'Anellament 8:19-24
Skórka P, Sierpowska K, Haidt A, Myczko L, Ekner-Grzyb A, Rosin ZM, Kwiecinski Z, Suchodolska J, Takacs V, Jankowiak L, Wasielewski O, Graclik A, Krawczyk AJ, Kasprzak A, Szwajkowski P, Wylegala P, Malecha AW, Mizera T y Tryjanowski P (2016) Habitat preferences of two sparrow species are modified by abundances of other birds in an urban environment. Current zoology 62: 357-368
Soh MCK, Pang RYT, Ng BXK, Lee BPYH, Loo AHB y Er KBH (2021) Restricted human activities shift the foraging strategies of feral pigeons (Columba livia) and three other commensal bird species. Biological Conservation 253:
Spennemann DHR y Watson MJ (2017) Dietary habits of urban pigeons (Columba livia) and implications of excreta pH - A review. European Journal of Ecology 3:27-41
Stock B y Haag-Wackernagel D (2016) Food shortage affects reproduction of Feral Pigeons Columba livia at rearing of nestlings. Ibis 158:776-783
Tang Q, Low GW, Lim JY, Gwee CY y Rheindt FE (2018) Human activities and landscape features interact to closely define the distribution and dispersal of an urban commensal. Evolutionary Applications 11:1598-1608
Villalba Sánchez C, De la Ossa Lacayo A y De la Ossa J (2015) Density of domestic pigeons (Columba livia GMELIN, 1789) in the new public market of Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia. Revista UDCA Actualidad & Divulgación Científica 18:497-502
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.