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Rapid adaptive adjustment of parental care coincident with altered migratory behaviour

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Abstract

The optimal duration of parental care is shaped by the trade-off between investment in current and expected future reproductive success. A change in migratory behaviour is expected to affect the optimal duration of parental care, because migration and non-migration differ in expectations of future reproductive success as a result of differential adult and/or offspring mortality. Here we studied how a recent emergence of non-migratory behaviour has affected the duration of parental care in the previously (until the 1980s) strictly migratory Russian breeding population of the barnacle geese Branta leucopsis. As a measure of parental care, we compared the vigilance behaviour of parents and non-parents in both migratory and non-migratory barnacle geese throughout the season. We estimated the duration of parental care at 233 days for migratory and 183 days for non-migratory barnacle geese. This constitutes a shortening of the duration of parental care of 21% in 25 years. Barnacle geese are thus able to rapidly adapt their parental care behaviour to ecological conditions associated with altered migratory behaviour. Our study demonstrates that a termination of migratory behaviour resulted in a drastic reduction in parental care and highlights the importance of studying the ecological and behavioural consequences of changes in migratory behaviour and the consequences of these changes for life-history evolution.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Lysanne Snijders and Marije Kuiper for collecting part of the data. We thank the Tamme family for providing a field station in Estonia and Veljo Volke for arranging permits for fieldwork and other logistic assistance in Estonia. We thank two John Endler, Marcel Klaassen and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. Funding was provided by the Dutch Faunafund; the Royal Netherlands Hunters Association (KNJV); and the Schure-Beijerinck-Popping Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Rudy M. Jonker, R. H. J. M. Kurvers, A. van de Bilt, M. Faber, S. E. Van Wieren, H. H. T. Prins & R. C. Ydenberg

  2. Centre for Wildlife Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    R. C. Ydenberg

Authors
  1. Rudy M. Jonker
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  2. R. H. J. M. Kurvers
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  3. A. van de Bilt
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  4. M. Faber
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  5. S. E. Van Wieren
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  6. H. H. T. Prins
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  7. R. C. Ydenberg
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Correspondence to Rudy M. Jonker.

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Jonker, R.M., Kurvers, R.H.J.M., van de Bilt, A. et al. Rapid adaptive adjustment of parental care coincident with altered migratory behaviour. Evol Ecol 26, 657–667 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-011-9514-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-011-9514-6

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