Dhanusha Kawalkar & Shirish S. Manchi

Abstract. Habitat selection, a crucial process of animal life, follows a hierarchical structure of orders ranging from broader (macro) to smaller (micro) scales. It is a multi-scale process that involves both innate and learned behavioural decisions. Different animals, including birds in various habitats, are described in/for the hierarchical orders of habitat selection. The cave-dwelling birds, on the other hand, were never subjected to this. We studied the edible-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) (ENS), as a model species from 79 limestone caves in two ecologically heterogeneous karst areas to test the hypothesis that order-level habitat selection theory applies to cave-dwelling birds, and we found that the ENS follows the hierarchical habitat selection process. The habitat selection at microscales of cave morphology (R2=0.13, p>0.05) and colony-site is random (R2=0.42, p>0.05). The birds display strong avoidance of long, wide, and large caves (E=-1). This study is the first to highlight cave-dwelling birds’ hierarchical framework of habitat selection. It also provides inputs for sustainable commercial farming of the edible-nest swiftlet.

Key words. cave-dwelling birds, cave morphology, habitat selection theory, order-level selection, conservation implementation

Read article here: RBZ-2025-0016