Decrease in body size of Danish goshawks during the twentieth century

Yoram Yom-Tov*, Shlomith Yom-Tov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent studies indicated that body size of various animals, including birds, changed during the twentieth century, and these changes were attributed to changes in food availability and climate. We used museum skins of goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) collected between 1854 and 1941 and between 1979 and 1998 in order to check whether body size of this species in Denmark changed during the study period. We compared three body measurements (wing, beak and tarsus length) and the first principal component (PC1) derived from these measurements of four groups of goshawks (adult and immature, females and males). We found that the wing length of goshawks collected after 1979 was significantly smaller in comparison with those collected before this year, and females were more affected than males. Immature birds (but not adults) collected after 1979 had significantly shorter beaks than those from the early period. Immature females collected after 1979 had shorter tarsi than those collected in the early period. There was a significant decrease in body size (as represented by PC1) from the early to late period, which was more pronounced among females and immature birds. In conclusion, body size of goshawks in Denmark decreased during the twentieth century.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)644-647
Number of pages4
JournalJournal fur Ornithologie
Volume147
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2006

Funding

FundersFunder number
FPVI
Israel Cohen Chair for Environmental Zoology

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