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Dryad

Migrants and residents of a long-lived seabird differ in their behavioural response to a stressor

Cite this dataset

Gatt, Marie Claire; Granadeiro, José Pedro; Catry, Paulo (2020). Migrants and residents of a long-lived seabird differ in their behavioural response to a stressor [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.547d7wm4s

Abstract

Inter-individual variation in behaviour has been recognised as a major driver of population ecology, but its relationship to migratory strategy has been ill-explored. Here, we investigated whether male migrant and resident Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis), a long-lived partially migratory seabird, are distinguishable by their temperament at the colony. We tracked a large number of individuals over two winters using GLS devices and assessed whether exploratory behaviour and reaction to extraction from the nest corresponded to migratory strategy over this period. While exploratory behaviour was unrelated to migratory strategy, birds that were resident were more likely to be unreactive towards extraction from the nest. This difference in behavioural stress response, together with previous findings that migrants display higher physiological stress over winter, suggests that migrants and residents may be distinguishable by their stress threshold.

Funding

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: PTDC/BIA-ANM/3743/2014

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: PD/BD/127807/2016

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: UIDB/50017/2020

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: UIDP/50017/2020

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: UIDB/04292/2020

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Award: UIDP/04292/2020