Abstract
Flight initiation distances (FIDs) of nesting birds approached by a predator likely reflect evolutionary stable strategies in which birds make trade-offs between adult survival and reproductive success. Here, we test if FID (a) had an impact on hatching success, (b) was adjusted to current conditions, and (c) was consistent for individual nests. All experiments were performed with a human approaching incubating Eurasian curlews Numenius arquata, a ground-nesting wader species under high egg predation pressure. Our results show that hatching success was higher in nests where the incubating parent left at intermediate FIDs compared to short and long ones, and that FID decreased with date and time of the evening. Further, FIDs from repeated approaches were not consistent within nests. We suggest that incubating Eurasian curlews follow a “surprise” strategy, where an element of randomness is superimposed on a context-adjusted norm to prevent predators from predicting their FID behaviour.
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Acknowledgments
This study was made possible by a grant from C.F. Lundströms Stiftelse (CM) and financial support from the Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (CGT). We wish to thank the ten assistants for late hours in the field, Sören Holm and Kjell Leonardsson for statistical advice, and Ruth Nichols for improving the quality of the text. Comments and suggestions from Juha Tiainen, Jari Valkama, one anonymous referee and the associate editor greatly improved the manuscript. The experimental design was approved by the Umeå Ethical Committee on Animal Experiments (permissions A25-09 and A35-10A).
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The authors declare that this publication complies with the current laws of the country in which the experiment was performed (Sweden).
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Communicated by P. A. Bednekoff
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de Jong, A., Magnhagen, C. & Thulin, CG. Variable flight initiation distance in incubating Eurasian curlew. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 1089–1096 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1533-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1533-6