Mark W. Miller, University of Florida, Elise V. Pearlstine, University of Florida, James E. Hines, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and Frank J. Mazzotti, University of Florida.
The Eurasian Collared-Dove, Streptopelia decaocto, an abundant and
aggressive exotic species, colonized North America via the Bahamas in the 1970s. This dove could potentially compete with
native dove species for breeding habitat.
Competition hypothesis predicts that distributions of Eurasian
Collared-Doves and other dove species are not independent. Area occupied by each of four dove species
was estimated in two habitats in South Florida
during 7 March – 26 May 2006. We
recorded presence/absence data for each species in 103 urban sites in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
and in 45 sites in sugarcane fields in the Everglades Agricultural Area. We visited each site four times. We used
two-species percent area occupied models and Program SURVIV to estimate whether
Eurasian Collared-Dove co-occurred with Mourning Doves, Zenaida macroura, White-winged Doves, Zenaida asiatica, and Common Ground Doves, Columbina passerina, less often than expected if all species
distributions were independent. Eurasian Collared-Doves were more widespread in urban habitat (PAOUrban =
0.81) than any other dove species and were rare in agricultural habitat. Mourning Doves were equally widespread in all
habitats (PAO = 0.50). Common Ground
Doves were largely restricted to the agricultural area (PAOEAA =
0.36) and White-winged Doves were only found in Fort Lauderdale (PAOUrban =
0.58). Eurasian Collared-Doves and
Mourning Doves co-occurred more often than expected if their distributions were
independent, as did Eurasian Collared-Doves and White-winged Doves,
inconsistent with the prediction of the competition hypothesis. Although our analysis was strictly correlational,
Eurasian Collared-Doves may not be impacting native doves.