TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS IN AN ISOLATED WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER (DENDROCOPOS-LEUCOTOS) POPULATION

Analyzes the spatial arrangement of Swedish white-backed woodpecker territories in what appears to constitute a metapopulation, exploring differences in rates of extinction, colonization, and persistence of a population between an area in Sweden with a low density of suitable habitat patches and an area with a higher density of such patches. The dynamics are probably best understood in the context of a region-wide decline of the species as observed in the taiga forests of Northern Europe. Population fragmentation and habitat degradation probably have been the forces increasing this species' susceptibility to extinction. -from Authors