{"id":29033,"date":"2016-05-18T13:22:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T20:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savetheredwoods.org\/?post_type=grant&#038;p=29033"},"modified":"2020-06-18T11:58:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:58:57","slug":"jays-appetite-human-food-threatens-murrelets","status":"publish","type":"grant","link":"https:\/\/www.savetheredwoods.org\/grant\/jays-appetite-human-food-threatens-murrelets\/","title":{"rendered":"Jays\u2019 Appetite for Human Food Threatens Murrelets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe title=\"Healthy Wildlife Conscientious Campers\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mJUS8lcfahk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On any given summer day in the heart of California\u2019s old-growth redwood forests, at any number of campgrounds, you might find visitors marveling at the towering giants, enjoying a picnic, and being entertained by charming guests.<\/p>\n<p>The guests are the curious and clever native birds, Steller\u2019s jays.<\/p>\n<p>A little breadcrumb here, a dropped potato chip there may not seem like much. And it\u2019s entertaining to watch a bird pluck your lunch right out from under you.<\/p>\n<p>But a five-year study led by Elena West and Zachariah Peery from the University of Wisconsin, and sponsored by Save the Redwoods League and other organizations, has proven that <strong>Steller\u2019s jays\u2019 appetite for human food is a major problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study had West and her team tracking the foraging patterns, diet, and their effects on Steller\u2019s jay populations in four parks in Central and Northern California. These sites were chosen not just for their large populations of Steller\u2019s jays, but because of another native inhabitant\u2014the marbled murrelet.<\/p>\n<p>The marbled murrelet is a federally protected native seabird that nests in stands of old-growth forest. While the Steller\u2019s jay is out entertaining campers, <strong>the shy murrelet is hiding from these natural predators.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>West believes the Steller\u2019s jay human-food addiction presents a major challenge. \u201cThey\u2019re incredibly intelligent, they\u2019re good learners, and they have great spatial memory. And because they\u2019re omnivores, they can eat a range of food, including food left out by humans. We also see jays adapting to areas where humans are living, which has allowed their populations to expand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And in fact, that is just what they are doing. West\u2019s study found that between 35 and 50 percent of the diet of jays in sampled campgrounds was made up of human food, increasing over the summer months when campground visitation is at its highest.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just a little free food that\u2019s the worry. <strong>These eating habits are altering the very ecology of the entire ecosystem.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>West and her colleagues found that <strong>Steller\u2019s jays are changing their foraging patterns and their territory sizes, allowing for more jays to occupy the same given area, increasing risk to marbled murrelets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The marbled murrelet suffers from other environmental stressors<\/strong>, including too few nest sites because of lost old-growth redwood forests and reduced availability of ocean fish which is their preferred food.  While these issues are difficult to solve, <strong>park visitors can help lessen the risk to marbled murrelets from Steller\u2019s jay predation by keeping all human food away from wildlife.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If successful, we can help prevent extirpation of the marbled murrelet in the Santa Cruz Mountains and maintain the delicate balance of species in the coast redwood forest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A five-year study led by Elena West and Zachariah Peery from the University of Wisconsin, and sponsored by Save the Redwoods League and other organizations, has proven that Steller\u2019s jays\u2019 appetite for human food is a major problem. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.savetheredwoods.org\/grant\/jays-appetite-human-food-threatens-murrelets\/\">Learn more about this research.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3464,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[103,6,104],"tags":[2335,673,915,2334],"grantorgs":[76],"class_list":["post-29033","grant","type-grant","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redwood-forest-wildlife","category-research-grants","category-wildlife","tag-jays","tag-marbled-murrelets","tag-redwood-research","tag-stellers-jays","grantorgs-university-of-wisconsin-madison"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jays\u2019 Appetite for Human Food Threatens Murrelets | Grants | Save the Redwoods League<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A five-year study led by Elena West and Zachariah Peery from the University of Wisconsin, and sponsored by Save the Redwoods League and other organizations, has proven that Steller\u2019s jays\u2019 appetite for human food is a major problem. 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