Seabirds mated for life migrate separately to the same places: behavioural coordination or shared proximate causes?

Müller, Martina S.; Massa, Bruno; Phillips, Richard A.; Dell'Omo, Giacomo. 2015 Seabirds mated for life migrate separately to the same places: behavioural coordination or shared proximate causes? Animal Behaviour, 102. 267-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.005

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This article has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form in Animal Behaviour, published by Elsevier. Copyright Elsevier.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.005

Abstract/Summary

Long-term pair bonds occur in diverse animal taxa, but they are most common in birds, and can last from a few years to a lifetime. In many of these species, after the reproductive season, birds migrate to distant nonbreeding grounds where they remain for several months, and until recently, little was known about whether partners maintain contact during migration. This gap in knowledge was primarily due to past methodological difficulties in tracking long-term, large-scale movements of individuals. However, the development of new animal-borne geolocation devices has enabled researchers to track movements of individuals for a year or more. We tracked the annual migrations of both members of breeding pairs of Scopoli's shearwaters, Calonectris diomedea, breeding on Linosa Island (Italy) and found that although they did not migrate together, they did spend a similar number of days travelling to and from similar terminal nonbreeding areas. Although migration destinations were alike, they were not identical. That partners did not appear to travel or spend time together in the nonbreeding season suggests that similarities were not due to behavioural coordination. We performed additional analyses to uncover alternative, potential proximate mechanisms. First, we found that body mass of breeding adults during the chick-rearing period correlated positively with the decision to migrate further south, so conceivably pair members may migrate to similar areas because of shared reproductive costs; however, partners were not of similar body mass. Distances between nonbreeding areas for individuals that nested closer together were smaller than for individuals that nested far apart. As neighbours tend to be more closely related due to high natal philopatry, this suggests that similarities within pairs in migration behaviour may reflect the influence of shared genes on migration strategy.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.005
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Ecosystems
ISSN:	00033472
Additional Keywords:	behavioural strategy, carryover effects, global location sensor, GLS logger, inbreeding, mate fidelity, movement ecology, partner coordination
Date made live:	09 Mar 2015 11:44 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510017

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.005

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Ecosystems

ISSN:

00033472

Additional Keywords:

behavioural strategy, carryover effects, global location sensor, GLS logger, inbreeding, mate fidelity, movement ecology, partner coordination

Date made live:

09 Mar 2015 11:44 +0 (UTC)