Influence of habitat on density and breeding success of grey and red-legged partridges

Abstract

Influence of habitat variables on pair and brood densities, and on breeding success of sympatric populations of grey and red-legged partridges was studied in a hilly area of 77 km2 in northern Italy by univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. By comparing the influence of habitat variables on the two species, some variables were found to have relationships with one species and not with the other. These variables increased in number from pair to brood and breeding success analyses. Thus, it was hypothesized that the greatest separation between the two species occurs at the end of the breeding season. The separation consists, above all, in the close relationship between red-legged partridge population and the habitat variables, which represent the more natural and driest items of landscape; on the contrary, grey partridges proved to be more linked to the variables of agricultural landscape. © 1992, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.