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      Highly dynamic wintering strategies in migratory geese: Coping with environmental change

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          Abstract

          When and where to move is a fundamental decision to migratory birds, and the fitness‐related costs and benefits of migratory choices make them subject to strong selective forces. Site use and migration routes are outcomes of opportunities in the surrounding landscape, and the optimal migration strategy may be conservative or explorative depending on the variability in the environment occupied by the species. This study applies 25 years of resighting data to examine development in winter migration strategy of pink‐footed geese divided among Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, and analyse potential drivers of strategy change as well as individuals’ likelihood to break with migratory tradition. Contrary with the general notion that geese are highly traditional in their winter site use, our results reveal that winter migration strategy is highly dynamic in this species, with an average annual probability of changing strategy of 54%. Strategy was not related to hunting pressure or winter temperature, but could be partly explained by a tracking of food resources in a landscape of rapid land use changes. The probability of individuals changing strategy from year to year varied considerably between birds, and was partly related to sex and age, with young males being the most likely to change. The annual probability of changing wintering strategy increased substantially from ≈40% to ≈60% during the study period, indicating an increasingly explorative behaviour. Our findings demonstrate that individual winter strategies are very flexible and able to change over time, suggesting that phenotypic plasticity and cultural transmission are important drivers of strategy choice in this species. Growing benefits from exploratory behaviours, including the ability to track rapid land use changes, may ultimately result in increased resilience to global change.

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          Most cited references37

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          Segmented: an R package to fit regression models with broken- line relationships

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            Social learning of migratory performance.

            Successful bird migration can depend on individual learning, social learning, and innate navigation programs. Using 8 years of data on migrating whooping cranes, we were able to partition genetic and socially learned aspects of migration. Specifically, we analyzed data from a reintroduced population wherein all birds were captive bred and artificially trained by ultralight aircraft on their first lifetime migration. For subsequent migrations, in which birds fly individually or in groups but without ultralight escort, we found evidence of long-term social learning, but no effect of genetic relatedness on migratory performance. Social learning from older birds reduced deviations from a straight-line path, with 7 years of experience yielding a 38% improvement in migratory accuracy.
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              Climate change leads to decreasing bird migration distances

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                kc@bios.au.dk
                Journal
                Glob Chang Biol
                Glob Chang Biol
                10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2486
                GCB
                Global Change Biology
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                1354-1013
                1365-2486
                20 February 2018
                July 2018
                : 24
                : 7 ( doiID: 10.1111/gcb.2018.24.issue-7 )
                : 3214-3225
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Department of Bioscience Aarhus University Rønde Denmark
                [ 2 ] Haarlem The Netherlands
                [ 3 ] Beernem Belgium
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Correspondence

                Kevin K. Clausen, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Rønde, Denmark.

                Email: kc@ 123456bios.au.dk

                [†]

                These authors contributed equally to this work.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3636-5442
                Article
                GCB14061
                10.1111/gcb.14061
                6032841
                29350875
                bf999790-8625-4992-875c-831b77813fd6
                © 2018 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 29 September 2017
                : 21 December 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 2, Pages: 11, Words: 8336
                Funding
                Funded by: Danish Environmental Protection Agency
                Funded by: Danish Research Council
                Categories
                Primary Research Article
                Primary Research Articles
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                gcb14061
                July 2018
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_NLMPMC version:version=5.4.3 mode:remove_FC converted:05.07.2018

                land use change,migration,philopatry,pink‐footed geese,site use,waterfowl

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