Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving
Winter irruptions, defined as irregular massive movement of individuals over large distances, have been linked to food supply. Two hypotheses have been put forward: the “lack-of-food” suggests that a shortage of food forces individuals to leave their regular winter range and the “breeding output” su...
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2018
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 2024-04-28T08:14:59+00:00 Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving Curk, T. McDonald, T. Zazelenchuk, D. Weidensaul, S. Brinker, D. Huy, S. Smith, N. Miller, T. Robillard, A. Gauthier, G. Lecomte, N. Therrien, J.-F. 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 96, issue 6, page 553-558 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2018 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 2024-04-09T06:56:25Z Winter irruptions, defined as irregular massive movement of individuals over large distances, have been linked to food supply. Two hypotheses have been put forward: the “lack-of-food” suggests that a shortage of food forces individuals to leave their regular winter range and the “breeding output” suggests that unusually large food supplies during the preceding breeding season allows production of a large number of offspring dispersing in winter. According to the breeding output hypothesis, irruptive Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus (Linnaeus, 1758)) in eastern North America should not exhibit a lower body condition than individuals in regular wintering regions and individuals on the breeding grounds. Additionally, body condition of irruptive individuals should be unrelated to irruption intensity. Although body condition of juveniles was generally lower than that of adults and improved during the winter, we measured a fair body condition in both juvenile and adult irruptive Snowy Owls across North America. The results showed that Snowy Owls are not in a starving state during winter and that body condition of all age classes was not related to winter irruption intensity. Those results support the breeding output hypothesis suggesting that winter irruptions seem to be primarily the result of a large number of offspring produced when food availability on the breeding grounds is high. Article in Journal/Newspaper Bubo scandiacus Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 96 6 553 558 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Curk, T. McDonald, T. Zazelenchuk, D. Weidensaul, S. Brinker, D. Huy, S. Smith, N. Miller, T. Robillard, A. Gauthier, G. Lecomte, N. Therrien, J.-F. Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Winter irruptions, defined as irregular massive movement of individuals over large distances, have been linked to food supply. Two hypotheses have been put forward: the “lack-of-food” suggests that a shortage of food forces individuals to leave their regular winter range and the “breeding output” suggests that unusually large food supplies during the preceding breeding season allows production of a large number of offspring dispersing in winter. According to the breeding output hypothesis, irruptive Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus (Linnaeus, 1758)) in eastern North America should not exhibit a lower body condition than individuals in regular wintering regions and individuals on the breeding grounds. Additionally, body condition of irruptive individuals should be unrelated to irruption intensity. Although body condition of juveniles was generally lower than that of adults and improved during the winter, we measured a fair body condition in both juvenile and adult irruptive Snowy Owls across North America. The results showed that Snowy Owls are not in a starving state during winter and that body condition of all age classes was not related to winter irruption intensity. Those results support the breeding output hypothesis suggesting that winter irruptions seem to be primarily the result of a large number of offspring produced when food availability on the breeding grounds is high. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Curk, T. McDonald, T. Zazelenchuk, D. Weidensaul, S. Brinker, D. Huy, S. Smith, N. Miller, T. Robillard, A. Gauthier, G. Lecomte, N. Therrien, J.-F. |
author_facet |
Curk, T. McDonald, T. Zazelenchuk, D. Weidensaul, S. Brinker, D. Huy, S. Smith, N. Miller, T. Robillard, A. Gauthier, G. Lecomte, N. Therrien, J.-F. |
author_sort |
Curk, T. |
title |
Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
title_short |
Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
title_full |
Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
title_fullStr |
Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
title_full_unstemmed |
Winter irruptive Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) in North America are not starving |
title_sort |
winter irruptive snowy owls ( bubo scandiacus ) in north america are not starving |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 |
genre |
Bubo scandiacus |
genre_facet |
Bubo scandiacus |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 96, issue 6, page 553-558 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2017-0278 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
96 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
553 |
op_container_end_page |
558 |
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1797580808543797248 |