Breeding together, feeding apart: sympatrically breeding seabirds forage in individually distinct locations

Owen, E., Wakefield, E. , Hollinrake, P., Leitch, A., Steel, L. and Bolton, M. (2019) Breeding together, feeding apart: sympatrically breeding seabirds forage in individually distinct locations. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 620, pp. 173-183. (doi: 10.3354/meps12979)

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Abstract

Individuals can specialise such that mutually exclusive home ranges arise and the acquisition of site familiarity early in life can favour individual site fidelity in mature animals. Non-territorial individual foraging site fidelity (IFSF) has been reported frequently, and among seabirds, foraging theory predicts that IFSF is more likely in short-ranging, benthic-foraging species, because their prey occur predictably at small scales. We tracked 17 adult and 2 immature black guillemots Cepphus grylle (mean mass 406 g, median of individual maximum foraging range 4.3 km). Individuals consistently returned to the same feeding areas, such that IFSF was significantly greater than the null expectation at spatial scales of 0.1 to 5 km and did not decay significantly over 10 d. Immature birds ranged more widely than adult birds. Our study demonstrates that space use varies between individuals and that processes or threats occurring within the foraging range of a given colony may act disproportionately on some individuals rather than be equally distributed across a population. This finding contributes to a growing body of research on IFSF, which may have important implications for species management.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Wakefield, Dr Ewan
Authors: Owen, E., Wakefield, E., Hollinrake, P., Leitch, A., Steel, L., and Bolton, M.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
Journal Name:Marine Ecology Progress Series
Publisher:Inter Research
ISSN:0171-8630
ISSN (Online):1616-1599
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2019 Inter-Research
First Published:First published in Marine Ecology Progress Series 620: 173-183
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
171561Seabirds and wind - the consequences of extreme prey taxis in a changing climateEwan WakefieldNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)NE/M017990/1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine