Bias in ring-recovery studies: causes of mortality of little owlsAthene noctuaand implications for population assessment

Recoveries of marked animals hold long‐term, large‐scale information on survival and causes of mortality, but are prone to bias towards dead recoveries and casualties in the range of presence of potential finders. Thus, accounting for circumstance‐related recovery probabilities is crucial in statistical approaches. For the little owl, a species of conservation concern in central Europe, raw ring recoveries suggested a strong human‐related impact...