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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Before making dispersal decisions, many species are known to gather social information by prospecting potential
future breeding sites, especially when they have failed breeding. So far, the role of current breeding performance
on the occurrence of prospecting movements has mainly been studied at limited spatial scales, because of diffi-
culties in tracking free-ranging, fast-moving individuals between distant breeding patches. Little information is
thus available on individual behaviour and the spatial extent of prospecting movements in response to breeding
failure. To address this issue, black-legged kittiwakes which breeding success was manipulated were tracked
with GPS at the end of incubation in two Norwegian colonies. Crucially, and as predicted, prospecting visits to
other breeding colonies were recorded in 33% of artificially-failed breeders, but never in successful ones. They
occurred at large (40 km) as well as local spatial scales (1 km). Time-budgets of successful and failed breeders
differed significantly in terms of trip duration, but also foraging, resting and nesting propensities. These results
provide important elements to assess trade-offs between prospecting and other activities. They show that a
substantial proportion of failed breeders prospect as early as within a week after failure at the egg stage and suggest
that these individuals assess their options of future reproduction by prospecting alternative areas, although
dispersal decisions may also involve more complex behavioural processes. Because they link breeding colonies
situated tens of kilometres apart, prospecting movements may have critical implications for the dynamics of
subdivided populations.
2 and a Région Languedoc-Roussillon programme ‘Chercheur d'Avenir’ award to TB. [SS]
2 and a Région Languedoc-Roussillon programme ‘Chercheur d'Avenir’ award to TB. [SS]
Description
Keywords
Breeding habitat selection Conspecific reproductive success Dispersal decisions Rissa tridactyla Site fidelity Social information use
Citation
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 473, 138-145. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2015.08.013
Publisher
Elsevier