Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care

Geese are social birds and form pairs that can last a lifetime, being together throughout the year. Forming pairs and maintaining family groups increase the individual’s social status, giving it easier access to resources and more time to exploit them. Hence, social behaviour is favourable when pair...

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Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: UiT Norges arktiske universitet 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10037/9584
id ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/9584
record_format openpolar
spelling ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/9584 2023-05-15T13:30:00+02:00 Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care 2016-05-17 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/9584 eng eng UiT Norges arktiske universitet UiT The Arctic University of Norway https://hdl.handle.net/10037/9584 openAccess Copyright 2016 The Author(s) Ecology Pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus foraging behaviour aggressiveness vigilance autumn inter-parental difference cost of brood rearing Mid-Norway body condition VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 BIO-3950 Master thesis Mastergradsoppgave 2016 ftunivtroemsoe 2021-06-25T17:54:53Z Geese are social birds and form pairs that can last a lifetime, being together throughout the year. Forming pairs and maintaining family groups increase the individual’s social status, giving it easier access to resources and more time to exploit them. Hence, social behaviour is favourable when pairs are building up body reserves before migrating to the breeding grounds as well as after breeding, helping the geese to easier replenish depleted reserves. Parents spend much time on vigilant behaviour, an activity that is costly, as it will reduce the time available for foraging. In geese, vigilant behaviour is more frequent for males than for females. Female geese have an extra high cost during the breeding period, resulting in an urgent need to replenish body reserves after the eggs are hatched. The male takes on the responsibility of vigilant behaviour during brood rearing, giving the female time to replenish her reserves. We studied the behaviour of Pink-footed geese in Mid-Norway on their way from the breeding grounds in Svalbard in the autumn, 2015, in order to evaluate whether this behaviour between sexes has changed after the breeding period in Svalbard. We hypothesized that the processes at the autumn stopover site are different compared to processes in the breeding grounds. We also evaluated the gain in body condition for parents as well as for the juveniles and for geese without young. We predict that the females contribute more to the guarding of young due to a more relaxed pressure on body mass accumulation in the autumn season. Juveniles were expected to increase in body condition over the staging period, and if males were rebuilding the reserves we also predicted that their body condition would increase. We expected to find a clear difference between non-breeding pairs and parents with young, as parents need to spend more time on vigilance behaviour at the expense of the time spent on feeding. Pairs with young expressed by their behaviour a clear cost of having young, as they spent less time on feeding and more time being alert compared to the corresponding behaviour of pairs without young. Since no significant difference in behaviour between males and females were found, our hypothesis that there are different selective processes at an autumn stopover site compared to the processes at the breeding season is supported. Master Thesis Anser brachyrhynchus Svalbard University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Norway Svalbard
institution Open Polar
collection University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive
op_collection_id ftunivtroemsoe
language English
topic Ecology
Pink-footed geese
Anser brachyrhynchus
foraging behaviour
aggressiveness
vigilance
autumn
inter-parental difference
cost of brood rearing
Mid-Norway
body condition
VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488
BIO-3950
spellingShingle Ecology
Pink-footed geese
Anser brachyrhynchus
foraging behaviour
aggressiveness
vigilance
autumn
inter-parental difference
cost of brood rearing
Mid-Norway
body condition
VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488
BIO-3950
Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
topic_facet Ecology
Pink-footed geese
Anser brachyrhynchus
foraging behaviour
aggressiveness
vigilance
autumn
inter-parental difference
cost of brood rearing
Mid-Norway
body condition
VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488
BIO-3950
description Geese are social birds and form pairs that can last a lifetime, being together throughout the year. Forming pairs and maintaining family groups increase the individual’s social status, giving it easier access to resources and more time to exploit them. Hence, social behaviour is favourable when pairs are building up body reserves before migrating to the breeding grounds as well as after breeding, helping the geese to easier replenish depleted reserves. Parents spend much time on vigilant behaviour, an activity that is costly, as it will reduce the time available for foraging. In geese, vigilant behaviour is more frequent for males than for females. Female geese have an extra high cost during the breeding period, resulting in an urgent need to replenish body reserves after the eggs are hatched. The male takes on the responsibility of vigilant behaviour during brood rearing, giving the female time to replenish her reserves. We studied the behaviour of Pink-footed geese in Mid-Norway on their way from the breeding grounds in Svalbard in the autumn, 2015, in order to evaluate whether this behaviour between sexes has changed after the breeding period in Svalbard. We hypothesized that the processes at the autumn stopover site are different compared to processes in the breeding grounds. We also evaluated the gain in body condition for parents as well as for the juveniles and for geese without young. We predict that the females contribute more to the guarding of young due to a more relaxed pressure on body mass accumulation in the autumn season. Juveniles were expected to increase in body condition over the staging period, and if males were rebuilding the reserves we also predicted that their body condition would increase. We expected to find a clear difference between non-breeding pairs and parents with young, as parents need to spend more time on vigilance behaviour at the expense of the time spent on feeding. Pairs with young expressed by their behaviour a clear cost of having young, as they spent less time on feeding and more time being alert compared to the corresponding behaviour of pairs without young. Since no significant difference in behaviour between males and females were found, our hypothesis that there are different selective processes at an autumn stopover site compared to the processes at the breeding season is supported.
format Master Thesis
title Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
title_short Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
title_full Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
title_fullStr Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
title_full_unstemmed Autumn staging behaviour in Pink-footed Geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
title_sort autumn staging behaviour in pink-footed geese; a similar contribution among sexes in parental care
publisher UiT Norges arktiske universitet
publishDate 2016
url https://hdl.handle.net/10037/9584
geographic Norway
Svalbard
geographic_facet Norway
Svalbard
genre Anser brachyrhynchus
Svalbard
genre_facet Anser brachyrhynchus
Svalbard
op_relation https://hdl.handle.net/10037/9584
op_rights openAccess
Copyright 2016 The Author(s)
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