Seat attendant
.jpg)
Sitting waiting areas are elevated positions that different animals need to live properly. Many species of birds , but also a number of reptiles and insects , rely on waiting areas. These are mainly needed for hunting ( high seat hunting ), but also play a role in various species' imposing behavior , in birds for example as a song watchdog .
description
_2011-05-12.jpg)
Sitting areas are characterized by their exposed location. From there, the animal has the possibility of standing, sitting or lying down, with a relatively safe view of a certain area from the elevated position. This saves a lot of energy that would be needed to achieve the same result when walking or flying.
The shape and location of a seat guard depend largely on species-specific needs; they are part of the animal's ecological niche . One and the same waiting can therefore be used by different species in different ways. Sitting waiting areas are usually of considerable importance for the nutrition and reproductive success of an animal, which is why individuals of different species as well as individuals of the same species often compete for these places.
Examples:
- In general, birds use tree tops , exposed branches of trees and shrubs , rocks , walls , fences , stakes , lamp posts and the like as sitting areas. Often they are the same plants, e.g. B. hedges and thorn bushes such. B. White, blackthorn and blackberry, which in its interior, the nest building , on the other hand are used with their spreading branches seat waiting for the insect-hunting birds.
- Whinchat prefer waiting 10-20 cm above the rest of the vegetation . Like all ground- nesters, however, they avoid areas as breeding areas in which there are too many perches, as the risk from superior hunters would be too great here.
- Kingfishers use branches or roots in front of or near the breeding caves they have created and over waters rich in small fish as waiting.
- Dragonflies ( Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis ), green wedges ( Ophiogomphus cecilia ) and great moss maids ( Leucorrhinia pectoralis ) hunt from perch near the surface of the water. For this purpose, they use sunlit stones , twigs , stalks and sandbanks as well as reed beds , branches and dead wood structures that are positioned in or near the water.
- Tree frogs use large, sunny leaves in bodies of water to sit by .
Cultural influences
As a result of the reshaping of landscapes , many natural positions suitable for sitting and waiting were lost, which, along with other factors, contributed to the suppression or extinction of species . On the other hand, humans create cultural landscapes and settlement areas, which create new sitting areas that offer cultural followers the opportunity to spread out.
Examples:
- In vineyards, wingert posts are used by many birds to sit down.
- Starlings and swallows often cluster on telephone or medium voltage lines.
- Seagulls and other seabirds use the superstructures of ships as seat watchers from which they fish.
natural reserve
The preservation of decimated or endangered bird species such as the red-backed shrike , the gray shrike or the mountain pipit requires, among other measures, the establishment of seat guards. Wheatears that live in rocky areas prefer rock fillings in which a 0.5 to 1 meter high wooden pole is embedded.
In winter, kestrels mainly prey on their food from perch. Where these are lacking in the arable land , kestrels are solely dependent on the exhausting flight hunt. With simply constructed seat crutches that are spread over a larger area, arable landscapes can be opened up as hunting grounds for kestrels. These aids are particularly popular with kestrels - as well as owls and buzzards - in winter . Sitting crutches are also erected next to them to protect young trees in order to prevent the birds of prey from perching on the thin tops of the young trees and damaging them.
Large birds such as the black stork , eagle owl and kite often sit on high-voltage lines and the associated masts . In coordination between nature conservation organizations and electricity supply companies , hoods are attached or live parts are provided with insulating material or even the mast height is increased so that the insulators (and thus the live lines) can no longer be attached to them standing, but hanging, which z. B. for the eagle owl means that when landing on such a mast it no longer creates a short circuit with its wings.
In many cases, seat crutches / seat guards for birds of prey are set up on the edge of expressways and motorways, which is fundamentally to be rejected. The birds of prey wait here for animals to be run over and are in danger of being run over when recording. A seat attendant can become a deadly trap and thus contradicts the idea of animal and nature conservation.