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Slezak CR, Blomberg EJ, Roth AM, Berigan LA, Fish AC, Darling R, Clements SJ, Balkcom G, Carpenter B, Costanzo G, Duguay J, Graham CL, Harvey W, Hook M, Howell DL, Maddox S, Meyer SW, Nichols TC, Pollard JB, Roy C, Stiller JC, Straub JN, Tetreault M, Tyl R, Williams L, Kilburn JE, McWilliams SR. Unconventional life history in a migratory shorebird: desegregating reproduction and migration. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20240021. [PMID: 38628119 PMCID: PMC11021936 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Conventional life-history theory predicts that energy-demanding events such as reproduction and migration must be temporally segregated to avoid resource limitation. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first direct evidence of 'itinerant breeding' in a migratory bird, an incredibly rare breeding strategy (less than 0.1% of extant bird species) that involves the temporal overlap of migratory and reproductive periods of the annual cycle. Based on GPS-tracking of over 200 female American woodcock, most female woodcock (greater than 80%) nested more than once (some up to six times) with short re-nest intervals, and females moved northwards on average 800 km between first and second nests, and then smaller distances (ca 200+ km) between subsequent nesting attempts. Reliance on ephemeral habitat for breeding, ground-nesting and key aspects of life history that reduce both the costs of reproduction and migration probably explain the prevalence of this rare phenotype in woodcock and why itinerant breeding so rarely occurs in other bird species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Greg Balkcom
- Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, Fort Valley, GA 31030, USA
| | - Bobbi Carpenter
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA
| | - Gary Costanzo
- Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Charles City, VA 23188, USA
| | - Jeffrey Duguay
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Baton Rouge, LA 70898, USA
| | | | - William Harvey
- Wildlife and Heritage Service, Department of Natural Resources, Cambridge, MD 21613, USA
| | - Michael Hook
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Columbia, SC 29202, USA
| | - Douglas L. Howell
- North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Edenton, NC 27932, USA
| | - Seth Maddox
- Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Montgomery, AL 36130, USA
| | - Shawn W. Meyer
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1V 1C7
| | | | - J. Bruce Pollard
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada E4L 1G6
| | - Christian Roy
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Saint-Joseph Gatineau, Quebec, Canada K1A 0H3
| | - Joshua C. Stiller
- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Albany, NY 12233, USA
| | - Jacob N. Straub
- State University of New York Brockport, Brockport, NY 14420, USA
| | - Mathieu Tetreault
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, D'Estimauville, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 0C3
| | - Reina Tyl
- Pennsylvania Game Commission, Harrisburg, PA 17110, USA
| | - Lisa Williams
- Pennsylvania Game Commission, Harrisburg, PA 17110, USA
| | - Jennifer E. Kilburn
- Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, West Kingston, RI 02892, USA
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Henley L, Finch D, Mathews F, Jones O, Woolley TE. A simple and fast method for estimating bat roost locations. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231999. [PMID: 38660598 PMCID: PMC11040240 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Bats play a pivotal role in pest control, pollination and seed dispersal. Despite their ecological significance, locating bat roosts remains a challenging task for ecologists. Traditional field surveys are time-consuming, expensive and may disturb sensitive bat populations. In this article, we combine data from static audio detectors with a bat movement model to facilitate the detection of bat roosts. Crucially, our technique not only provides a point prediction for the most likely location of a bat roost, but because of the algorithm's speed, it can be applied over an entire landscape, resulting in a likelihood map, which provides optimal searching regions. To illustrate the success of the algorithm and highlight limitations, we apply our technique to greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) acoustic data acquired from six surveys from four different UK locations and over six different times in the year. Furthermore, we investigate what happens to the accuracy of our predictions in the case that the roost is not contained within the area spanned by the detectors. This innovative approach to searching rural environments holds the potential to greatly reduce the labour required for roost finding, and, hence, enhance the conservation efforts of bat populations and their habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy Henley
- Cardiff School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, CardiffCF24 4AG, UK
| | - Domhnall Finch
- University of Sussex, John Maynard Smith Building, BrightonBN1 9RH, UK
- National Parks and Wildlife Service, North DublinD07 N7CV, Ireland
| | - Fiona Mathews
- University of Sussex, John Maynard Smith Building, BrightonBN1 9RH, UK
| | - Owen Jones
- Cardiff School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, CardiffCF24 4AG, UK
| | - Thomas E. Woolley
- Cardiff School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, CardiffCF24 4AG, UK
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Murgatroyd M, Tate G, Amar A. Using GPS tracking to monitor the breeding performance of a low-density raptor improves accuracy, and reduces long-term financial and carbon costs. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:221447. [PMID: 37650057 PMCID: PMC10465196 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.221447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
Traditionally, demographic monitoring of birds has been undertaken by intensive monitoring of nesting sites. However, this is challenging for low-density species, whereby the effort and costs involved in locating and monitoring remote sites can be prohibitive or even bias research findings. We show that Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking can overcome these challenges for a low-density raptor. Field monitoring of martial eagles Polemaetus bellicosus from 2013 to 2021 showed consistently poor breeding performance, with a mean productivity of 0.22 (±0.04) fledged young/pair/year. Using GPS tracking data to infer breeding performance gave a significantly higher productivity of 0.46 (±0.10) fledged young/pair/year. Breeding rate and success were also underestimated by field monitoring. These differences were likely due to logistical constraints of field monitoring, particularly relating to finding alternative nests. Comparing costs between approaches, we estimated that GPS monitoring was financially cheaper than field monitoring per sample after 10 years. Carbon costs per sample were lower for GPS-based approaches than field monitoring from the second year, and over a 10-year period GPS monitoring produced considerable savings (200% less carbon). We recommend that despite high initial costs, for long-term demographic monitoring of low-density species, or where logistical constraints make traditional field monitoring inaccurate, remote monitoring options should be considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- M. Murgatroyd
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
- HawkWatch International, 2240 South 900 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84106, USA
- The Endangered Wildlife Trust, 27 and 28 Austin Road, Glen Austin, Midrand, Johannesburg 1685, South Africa
| | - G. Tate
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
- The Endangered Wildlife Trust, 27 and 28 Austin Road, Glen Austin, Midrand, Johannesburg 1685, South Africa
| | - A. Amar
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
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Becciu P, Séchaud R, Schalcher K, Plancherel C, Roulin A. Prospecting movements link phenotypic traits to female annual potential fitness in a nocturnal predator. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5071. [PMID: 36977731 PMCID: PMC10050157 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32255-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent biologging technology reveals hidden life and breeding strategies of nocturnal animals. Combining animal movement patterns with individual characteristics and landscape features can uncover meaningful behaviours that directly influence fitness. Consequently, defining the proximate mechanisms and adaptive value of the identified behaviours is of paramount importance. Breeding female barn owls (Tyto alba), a colour-polymorphic species, recurrently visit other nest boxes at night. We described and quantified this behaviour for the first time, linking it with possible drivers, and individual fitness. We GPS-equipped 178 female barn owls and 122 male partners from 2016 to 2020 in western Switzerland during the chick rearing phase. We observed that 111 (65%) of the tracked breeding females were (re)visiting nest boxes while still carrying out their first brood. We modelled their prospecting parameters as a function of brood-, individual- and partner-related variables and found that female feather eumelanism predicted the emergence of prospecting behaviour (less melanic females are usually prospecting). More importantly we found that increasing male parental investment (e.g., feeding rate) increased female prospecting efforts. Ultimately, females would (re)visit a nest more often if they had used it in the past and were more likely to lay a second clutch afterwards, consequently having higher annual fecundity than non-prospecting females. Despite these apparent immediate benefits, they did not fledge more chicks. Through biologging and long-term field monitoring, we highlight how phenotypic traits (melanism and parental investment) can be related to movement patterns and the annual potential reproductive output (fecundity) of female barn owls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Becciu
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Robin Séchaud
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Kim Schalcher
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Céline Plancherel
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Alexandre Roulin
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Active breeding seabirds prospect alternative breeding colonies. Oecologia 2023; 201:341-354. [PMID: 36746795 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-023-05331-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Compared to other animal movements, prospecting by adult individuals for a future breeding site is commonly overlooked. Prospecting influences the decision of where to breed and has consequences on fitness and lifetime reproductive success. By analysing movements of 31 satellite- and GPS-tracked gull and tern populations belonging to 14 species in Europe and North America, we examined the occurrence and factors explaining prospecting by actively breeding birds. Prospecting in active breeders occurred in 85.7% of studied species, across 61.3% of sampled populations. Prospecting was more common in populations with frequent inter-annual changes of breeding sites and among females. These results contradict theoretical models which predict that prospecting is expected to evolve in relatively predictable and stable environments. More long-term tracking studies are needed to identify factors affecting patterns of prospecting in different environments and understand the consequences of prospecting on fitness at the individual and population level.
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Piironen A, Fox AD, Kampe‐Persson H, Skyllberg U, Therkildsen OR, Laaksonen T. When and where to count? Implications of migratory connectivity and nonbreeding distribution to population censuses in a migratory bird population. POPUL ECOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/1438-390x.12143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Anthony D. Fox
- Department of Ecoscience Aarhus University Aarhus C Denmark
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Environmental and social correlates, and energetic consequences of fitness maximisation on different migratory behaviours in a long-lived scavenger. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03223-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Overton C, Casazza M, Bretz J, McDuie F, Matchett E, Mackell D, Lorenz A, Mott A, Herzog M, Ackerman J. Machine learned daily life history classification using low frequency tracking data and automated modelling pipelines: application to North American waterfowl. MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2022; 10:23. [PMID: 35578372 PMCID: PMC9109391 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-022-00324-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Identifying animal behaviors, life history states, and movement patterns is a prerequisite for many animal behavior analyses and effective management of wildlife and habitats. Most approaches classify short-term movement patterns with high frequency location or accelerometry data. However, patterns reflecting life history across longer time scales can have greater relevance to species biology or management needs, especially when available in near real-time. Given limitations in collecting and using such data to accurately classify complex behaviors in the long-term, we used hourly GPS data from 5 waterfowl species to produce daily activity classifications with machine-learned models using "automated modelling pipelines". METHODS Automated pipelines are computer-generated code that complete many tasks including feature engineering, multi-framework model development, training, validation, and hyperparameter tuning to produce daily classifications from eight activity patterns reflecting waterfowl life history or movement states. We developed several input features for modeling grouped into three broad categories, hereafter "feature sets": GPS locations, habitat information, and movement history. Each feature set used different data sources or data collected across different time intervals to develop the "features" (independent variables) used in models. RESULTS Automated modelling pipelines rapidly developed easily reproducible data preprocessing and analysis steps, identification and optimization of the best performing model and provided outputs for interpreting feature importance. Unequal expression of life history states caused unbalanced classes, so we evaluated feature set importance using a weighted F1-score to balance model recall and precision among individual classes. Although the best model using the least restrictive feature set (only 24 hourly relocations in a day) produced effective classifications (weighted F1 = 0.887), models using all feature sets performed substantially better (weighted F1 = 0.95), particularly for rarer but demographically more impactful life history states (i.e., nesting). CONCLUSIONS Automated pipelines generated models producing highly accurate classifications of complex daily activity patterns using relatively low frequency GPS and incorporating more classes than previous GPS studies. Near real-time classification is possible which is ideal for time-sensitive needs such as identifying reproduction. Including habitat and longer sequences of spatial information produced more accurate classifications but incurred slight delays in processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cory Overton
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA.
| | - Michael Casazza
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Joseph Bretz
- Cloud Hosting Solutions, U.S. Geological Survey, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Fiona McDuie
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
- Moss Landing Laboratories, San Jose State University Research Foundation, San Jose, CA, USA
| | - Elliott Matchett
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Desmond Mackell
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Austen Lorenz
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Andrea Mott
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Mark Herzog
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
| | - Josh Ackerman
- Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Dixon Field Station, Dixon, CA, USA
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Carpenter BG, Sieving KE, Terhune T, Picardi S, Griffith A, Sheilds R, Pittman HT. Linking wild turkey hen movement data to nesting behavior. WILDLIFE SOC B 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/wsb.1267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bobbi G. Carpenter
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Gainesville FL 32601 USA
| | - Kathryn E. Sieving
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611‐0430 USA
| | | | - Simona Picardi
- Department of Wildland Resources and Jack H. Berryman Institute Utah State University Logan UT 84322 USA
| | | | - Roger Sheilds
- Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Nashville TN 37211 USA
| | - Henry Tyler Pittman
- Extension Agent, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences University of Florida Trenton FL 32693 USA
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Irvine CC, Cherry SG, Patterson BR. Discriminating grey wolf kill sites using GPS clusters. J Wildl Manage 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.22163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Seth G. Cherry
- Parks Canada Agency Box 220 Radium Hot Springs BC V0A 1M0 Canada
| | - Brent R. Patterson
- Trent University 1600 W Bank Drive Peterborough ON K9L 0G2 Canada
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry 2140 East Bank Drive Peterborough ON K9L 1Z8 Canada
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Kays R, Davidson SC, Berger M, Bohrer G, Fiedler W, Flack A, Hirt J, Hahn C, Gauggel D, Russell B, Kölzsch A, Lohr A, Partecke J, Quetting M, Safi K, Scharf A, Schneider G, Lang I, Schaeuffelhut F, Landwehr M, Storhas M, Schalkwyk L, Vinciguerra C, Weinzierl R, Wikelski M. The Movebank system for studying global animal movement and demography. Methods Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.13767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Roland Kays
- North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Raleigh NC USA
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Raleigh NC USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balboa Panamá
| | - Sarah C. Davidson
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
- Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
| | | | - Gil Bohrer
- Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
| | - Wolfgang Fiedler
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | - Andrea Flack
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | | | | | | | | | - Andrea Kölzsch
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | - Ashley Lohr
- North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Raleigh NC USA
| | - Jesko Partecke
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | - Michael Quetting
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
| | - Kamran Safi
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | - Anne Scharf
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
| | - Gabriel Schneider
- Communication, Information, Media Centre University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | - Ilona Lang
- Communication, Information, Media Centre University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | | | - Matthias Landwehr
- Communication, Information, Media Centre University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
| | | | - Louis Schalkwyk
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development Skukuza South Africa
- Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases Faculty of Veterinary Science University of Pretoria Onderstepoort South Africa
| | | | - Rolf Weinzierl
- Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development Skukuza South Africa
| | - Martin Wikelski
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balboa Panamá
- Department of Animal Migration Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour Radolfzell Germany
- Department of Biology University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
- Am Fügsee 29 Seehausen am Staffelsee Germany
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12
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Piironen A, Paasivaara A, Laaksonen T. Birds of three worlds: moult migration to high Arctic expands a boreal-temperate flyway to a third biome. MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2021; 9:47. [PMID: 34526145 PMCID: PMC8444479 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-021-00284-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Knowledge on migration patterns and flyways is a key for understanding the dynamics of migratory populations and evolution of migratory behaviour. Bird migration is usually considered to be movements between breeding and wintering areas, while less attention has been paid to other long-distance movements such as moult migration. METHODS We use high-resolution satellite-tracking data from 58 taiga bean geese Anser fabalis fabalis from the years 2019-2020, to study their moult migration during breeding season. We show the moulting sites, estimate the migratory connectivity between the breeding and the moulting sites, and estimate the utilization distributions during moult. We reveal migration routes and compare the length and timing of migration between moult migrants and successful breeders. RESULTS All satellite-tracked non-breeding and unsuccessfully breeding taiga bean geese migrated annually to the island of Novaya Zemlya in the high Arctic for wing moult, meaning that a large part of the population gathers at the moulting sites outside the breeding range annually for approximately three months. Migratory connectivity between breeding and moulting sites was very low (rm = - 0.001, 95% CI - 0.1562-0.2897), indicating that individuals from different breeding grounds mix with each other on the moulting sites. Moult migrants began fall migration later in autumn than successful breeders, and their overall annual migration distance was over twofold compared to the successful breeders. CONCLUSIONS Regular moult migration makes the Arctic an equally relevant habitat for the taiga bean goose population as their boreal breeding and temperate wintering grounds, and links ecological communities in these biomes. Moult migration plays an important role in the movement patterns and spatio-temporal distribution of the population. Low migratory connectivity between breeding and moulting sites can potentially contribute to the gene flow within the population. Moult migration to the high Arctic exposes the population to the rapid impacts of global warming to Arctic ecosystems. Additionally, Novaya Zemlya holds radioactive contaminants from various sources, which might still pose a threat to moult migrants. Generally, these results show that moult migration may essentially contribute to the way we should consider bird migration and migratory flyways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antti Piironen
- University of Turku, Vesilinnantie 5, 20500, Turku, Finland.
| | - Antti Paasivaara
- Natural Resource Institute Finland, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 413, 90014, Oulu, Finland
| | - Toni Laaksonen
- University of Turku, Vesilinnantie 5, 20500, Turku, Finland
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