Desert Diary
April 21, 2003

Ecology/White-winged Doves

   

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Once, many years ago, numerous ecologists thought that plant and animal communities were natural units that changed little in composition through time--indeed, were units whose members were evolutionarily adapted to one another. When environments changed, it was assumed that the whole community moved as a single entity. More recently, however, it's become evident that the makeup of many such communities are in more or less constant flux--as environments change, some species no longer find the necessities of life and are lost; other species, finding conditions now suitable, move in.

We see this currently in many of our Chihuahuan Desert communities as various species move in and out. One change that is a joy to many people is the increasingly abundant White-winged Doves. Not too many decades ago, this bird was common in the Rio Grande Valley only in southern Texas, extending in small numbers into the Trans-Pecos Texas portion of the Chihuahuan Desert. Today, this is a common dove in the El Paso region, in many places outnumbering that long-time inhabitant, the Mourning Dove

Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.

Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.

White-winged Dove Zenaida asiatica. Photograph courtesy of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

References

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