Breeding performance, mate fidelity, and nest site fidelity in a long‐lived seabird: behaving against the current?

Abstract

Naves, L. C., Monnat, J. Y. and Cam, E. 2006. Breeding performance, mate fidelity, and nest site fidelity in a long-lived seabird: behaving against the current? Á Oikos 115: 263 Á276.There is evidence that breeding failure is associated with divorce and dispersal in many bird species. However, deviations from the general pattern ''success-stay/failure-leave'' seem to be common, suggesting that factors other than breeding performance may importantly influence mate and habitat selection. Moreover, variability in response to performance suggests coexistence of different evolutionary strategies of mate and site selection within a population. In this study, we assessed how individuals conform to the success-stay/failure-leave pattern in kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla ), and aimed to identify categories of individuals presenting different behavioural patterns. We considered individual attributes (experience, prior residence at the nest site, performance in multiple breeding attempts), pair attributes (arrival asynchrony, timing of failure, pair duration), and productivity in habitat patches. Timing of failure was an important factor. Pair reunion probability was close to 0.5 in failed pairs, but it was consistently higher in early failed than in late failed pairs. Prior residence better explained variability in probability of reunion in failed pairs than pair duration. However, the positive influence of prior residence on the probability of reunion was perceptible only in early failed pairs. Divorce probability in successful pairs increased with arrival asynchrony, and was higher in first-time than in experienced breeders. Local productivity positively influenced site fidelity probability in early failed birds, but not in late failed ones. Using memory models, we found that dispersal decisions integrate information on individual breeding performance in a temporal scale longer than one year. This study contributed to the identification of relevant states to be considered when addressing mate and nest site choice. Natural selection may operate on slight fitness differences that cannot be detected without high levels of stratification according to the appropriate individual and habitat attributes. L. C. Naves (liliananaves@yahoo.com), Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Laboratoire d'É cologie, Bât A7 case 237. 7, quai St Bernard, FR-75252 Paris cedex 05,

Experimentally reduced corticosterone release promotes early breeding in black-legged kittiwakes

“…CORT manipulation could have led to negative effects on survival, as previously found in male kittiwakes implanted with two CORT implants during the chick-rearing period (Goutte et al, 2010c). Moreover, males with experimentally lower CORT levels may have dispersed in surrounding colonies in 2010 and/or may have skipped the 2010 breeding attempt, as a possible consequence of the high laying failure in 2009 (Naves et al, 2006). Further analyses (2 years of observation after the treatment and capture-mark-recapture analyses) are needed to confirm this tendency in males.…”

Now you see him, now you don't: experience, not age, is related to reproduction in kittiwakes

“…Conversely, they are more likely to skip breeding [15] and disperse [14,16] after a breeding failure and if a high proportion of their neighbours also failed breeding. Individuals are more likely to retain the same mate following a successful breeding event [17]. Individuals leave the colonies at the end of the breeding season at the latest (September), but some may leave earlier (e.g.…”

Year-round video surveillance of individual nest-site attendance of Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) in the Faroe Islands / Í eitt ár vórðu reiðurstaðir hjá havhesti (Fulmarus glacialis) í Føroyum eygleiddir við vakmyndatóli

“…This may be due to disturbance and a subsequent low breeding success (Table 3) or some other environmental unpredictability. In the context of the "success-stay/failure-leave" concept (Schmidt, 2004), breeding performance is thought to influence both mate and site fidelity in long-lived seabirds (Naves et al, 2006); though with regard to site fidelity theory predicts that it should be inversely related to lifespan and that individuals should be site-faithful in unpredictable habitats provided there is equal site-quality (Switzer, 1993(Switzer, , 1997. However, not surprisingly in view of the small sample-size, no significant differences in first arrival dates and attendance patterns between nest-sites and years, or between successful and failed breeders, are discernible in the present data (Table 5).…”

“…Forbes and Kaiser, 1994;Naves et al, 2006). By using surveillance cameras we were able to collect extensive data on the timing and duration of events going on at a number of selected nest-sites, thus enabling us to address issues and aspects of the annual cycle of the species raised by other studies.…”