Active breeding seabirds prospect alternative breeding colonies
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 gul...
Published in: | Oecologia |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/337856 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05331-y https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85147585874 |
Summary: | 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. The study on black-legged kittiwakes in Norway was funded by the French Polar Institute (IPEV, programme no. 333 PARASITOARCTIQUE and OSU-OREME) and in France by Eoliennes Offshores du Calvados, Eoliennes Offshores des Hautes Falaises and the French Agency for Marine Protected Areas. Tracking of black-legged and red-legged kittiwakes in Alaska was supported by the North Pacific Research Board. The studies on Mediterranean gulls and gull-billed terns in Italy were funded by agreements between ISPRA and the Italian Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MiTE), formerly Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM); Decreti Min. Prot. 0004799-04/03/2016 and Prot. 34751-30/12/2019. The study of Audouin's gull in Spain was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, AEI/FEDER and UE (grants re. CGL2016-80963-R and CGL2017-85210-P), Project LIFE + INDEMARES (2009–2014; LIFE07NAT/E/000732), and was conducted by SEO/BirdLife. The study of Audouin's gull in Corse was ... |
---|