Mediterranean islands are critical for migrating birds, providing shelter and sustenance for millions of individuals each year. Humans have long exploited bird migration through hunting and illegal trapping. On the island of Cyprus, trapping birds during their migratory peak is considered a local tradition, but has long been against the law. Illegal bird trapping is a lucrative business, however, with trappers using tape lures that broadcast species’ vocalizations because it is expected to increase numbers of target species. Yet, by how much the use of song playback increases capture rates remains underappreciated. In particular, it is not known whether song playback of target species affects bycatch rates. Here, we show with the use of playback experiments that song playback is highly effective in luring birds towards trapping sites. We found that playback increases six to eight times the number of individuals of target species captured, but also significantly increases bycatch. Our findings thus show that in contrast to popular belief that tape lures are a selective trapping method, they also lead to increased captures of non-target species, which can include species of conservation concern.

中文翻译：

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录像带诱使兼有非法鸟类诱捕的地中海岛屿上的兼捕物膨胀

地中海群岛对于迁徙鸟类至关重要，每年为数百万个人提供庇护和寄养。长期以来，人类一直通过狩猎和非法诱捕利用鸟类迁徙。在塞浦路斯岛上，在候鸟高峰期诱捕鸟类被认为是当地的传统，但长期以来一直违法。但是，非法捕鸟是一项有利可图的业务，因为诱捕者使用磁带诱饵来传播物种的发声，因为这有望增加目标物种的数量。然而，歌曲回放的使用在多大程度上增加了捕获率，仍然未被充分认识。特别地，未知目标物种的歌曲回放是否会影响兼捕率。在这里，我们通过播放实验表明，歌曲播放在引诱鸟类飞向诱捕地点方面非常有效。我们发现回放增加了捕获的目标物种个体数量的六到八倍，但同时也大大增加了兼捕。因此，我们的发现表明，与流行的观点认为带诱剂是一种选择性诱捕方法相反，它们还导致非靶标物种（包括保护物种在内）的捕获量增加。