Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird
We use GPS tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls to show how these long-lived birds benefit from experience during migration. We found that stopover fidelity across years strongly depended on food source reliability. Birds using more reliable food sources thereby showed more consistent...
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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:8750714 2023-10-25T01:40:20+02:00 Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird Baert, Jan Stienen, Eric W. M. Verbruggen, Frederick Van de Weghe, Nico Lens, Luc Mueller, Wendt 2022 application/pdf https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8750714 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714/file/8750717 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8750714 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714/file/8750717 No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY ISSN: 1045-2249 ISSN: 1465-7279 Biology and Life Sciences Earth and Environmental Sciences SITE FIDELITY CONNECTIVITY RESIDENCY EVOLUTION GENETICS TRACKING STRATEGY learning Lesser Black-backed Gull migration selection stopover journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 2023-09-27T22:07:02Z We use GPS tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls to show how these long-lived birds benefit from experience during migration. We found that stopover fidelity across years strongly depended on food source reliability. Birds using more reliable food sources thereby showed more consistent migratory behavior across years and covered significantly less distance while foraging during stopovers. There is a growing awareness that experience may play a major role in migratory decisions, especially in long-lived species. However, empirical support remains to date scarce. Here, we use multiyear GPS-tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus), a long-lived species for which migratory strategies typically consist of a series of long stopovers, to assess how experience affects interannual variation in stopover selection. We expect that food source reliability should play a pivotal role, as it both reduces the uncertainty on food availability across years, and enables for more efficient foraging during stopovers by reducing searching efforts. We found that during stopovers gulls indeed developed high fidelity to particular foraging locations, which strongly reduced the daily distance travelled for foraging. When revisiting stopovers in consecutive years, birds used over 80% of foraging locations from the previous year. Although the average fidelity to stopovers across years was a high as 85%, stopovers where birds showed high foraging site fidelity were up to 60% more likely to be revisited compared to stopover with low foraging site fidelity. Accordingly, birds using more stopovers with reliable foraging opportunities showed significantly less interannual variation in their stopover use than birds using stopovers with less reliable foraging opportunities. Our results thus highlight the need to further deepen our understanding of the role of cognitive processes in individual variation in migratory behavior. Article in Journal/Newspaper Lesser black-backed gull Ghent University Academic Bibliography Behavioral Ecology 33 1 263 270 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Biology and Life Sciences Earth and Environmental Sciences SITE FIDELITY CONNECTIVITY RESIDENCY EVOLUTION GENETICS TRACKING STRATEGY learning Lesser Black-backed Gull migration selection stopover |
spellingShingle |
Biology and Life Sciences Earth and Environmental Sciences SITE FIDELITY CONNECTIVITY RESIDENCY EVOLUTION GENETICS TRACKING STRATEGY learning Lesser Black-backed Gull migration selection stopover Baert, Jan Stienen, Eric W. M. Verbruggen, Frederick Van de Weghe, Nico Lens, Luc Mueller, Wendt Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
topic_facet |
Biology and Life Sciences Earth and Environmental Sciences SITE FIDELITY CONNECTIVITY RESIDENCY EVOLUTION GENETICS TRACKING STRATEGY learning Lesser Black-backed Gull migration selection stopover |
description |
We use GPS tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls to show how these long-lived birds benefit from experience during migration. We found that stopover fidelity across years strongly depended on food source reliability. Birds using more reliable food sources thereby showed more consistent migratory behavior across years and covered significantly less distance while foraging during stopovers. There is a growing awareness that experience may play a major role in migratory decisions, especially in long-lived species. However, empirical support remains to date scarce. Here, we use multiyear GPS-tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus), a long-lived species for which migratory strategies typically consist of a series of long stopovers, to assess how experience affects interannual variation in stopover selection. We expect that food source reliability should play a pivotal role, as it both reduces the uncertainty on food availability across years, and enables for more efficient foraging during stopovers by reducing searching efforts. We found that during stopovers gulls indeed developed high fidelity to particular foraging locations, which strongly reduced the daily distance travelled for foraging. When revisiting stopovers in consecutive years, birds used over 80% of foraging locations from the previous year. Although the average fidelity to stopovers across years was a high as 85%, stopovers where birds showed high foraging site fidelity were up to 60% more likely to be revisited compared to stopover with low foraging site fidelity. Accordingly, birds using more stopovers with reliable foraging opportunities showed significantly less interannual variation in their stopover use than birds using stopovers with less reliable foraging opportunities. Our results thus highlight the need to further deepen our understanding of the role of cognitive processes in individual variation in migratory behavior. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Baert, Jan Stienen, Eric W. M. Verbruggen, Frederick Van de Weghe, Nico Lens, Luc Mueller, Wendt |
author_facet |
Baert, Jan Stienen, Eric W. M. Verbruggen, Frederick Van de Weghe, Nico Lens, Luc Mueller, Wendt |
author_sort |
Baert, Jan |
title |
Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
title_short |
Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
title_full |
Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
title_fullStr |
Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
title_full_unstemmed |
Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
title_sort |
resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8750714 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714/file/8750717 |
genre |
Lesser black-backed gull |
genre_facet |
Lesser black-backed gull |
op_source |
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY ISSN: 1045-2249 ISSN: 1465-7279 |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8750714 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8750714/file/8750717 |
op_rights |
No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab132 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
263 |
op_container_end_page |
270 |
_version_ |
1780736083457212416 |