Coastal Institute

Humans have dramatically changed the coastal environments that are needed by birds for nesting. One issue that has arisen is the increase in predators of ground nesting shorebirds. One avenue to protect shorebird populations is to reduce predation rates. So far, this has almost exclusively done by exclosures surrounding nests; this however comes at a costs and can even increase predation rates of eggs and hatchling. Our study will investigate a novel non-lethal approach to misinform predators so that they do not associate bird odor with a food reward, thus hoping to reduce predation rates. This methodology could have a positive influence on the population of threatened shorebirds, thus increasing the value of shoreline environments for both people and birds.