Conspecific Reproductive Success and Breeding Habitat Selection: Implications for the Study of Coloniality

Abstract

Habitat selection is a crucial process in the life cycle of animals because it can affect most components of fitness. It has been proposed that some animals cue on the reproductive success of conspecifics to select breeding habitats. We tested this hypothesis with demographic and behavioral data from a 17-yr study of the Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), a cliff-nesting seabird. As the hypothesis assumes, the Black-legged Kittiwake nesting environment was patchy, and the relative quality of the different patches (i.e., breeding cliffs) varied in time. The average reproductive success of the breeders of a given cliff was predictable from one year to the next, but this predictability faded after several years. The dynamic nature of cliff quality in the long term is partly explained by the autocorrelation of the prevalence of an ectoparasite that influences reproductive success. As predicted by the performance-based conspecific attraction hypothesis, the reproductive success of current breeders on a given cliff was predictive of the reproductive success of new recruits on the cliff in the following year. Breeders tended to recruit to the previous year's most productive cliffs and to emigrate from the least productive ones. Consequently, the dynamics of breeder numbers on the cliffs were explained by local reproductive success on a year-to-year basis. Because, on average, young Black-legged Kittiwakes first breed when 4 yr old, such a relationship probably results from individual choices based on the assessment of previous-year local quality. When breeders changed breeding cliffs between years, they selected cliffs of per capita higher reproductive success. Furthermore, after accounting for the potential effects of age and sex as well as between-year variations, the effect of individual breeding performance on breeding dispersal was strongly influenced by the average reproductive success of other breeders on the same cliff. Individual breeding performance did not appear to influence the probability of dispersing for birds breeding on cliffs with high local reproductive success, whereas individual breeding performance did have a strong effect on dispersal for birds that bred on cliffs with lower local reproductive success. This suggests that the reproductive success of locally breeding conspecifics may be sufficient to override an individual's own breeding experience when deciding whether to emigrate. These results, which are supported by behavioral observations of the role of prospecting in recruitment, suggest that both first breeders and adults rely on the reproductive success of conspecifics as ''public information'' to assess their own chances of breeding successfully in a given patch and to make settling decisions. A corollary prediction is that individuals should attempt to breed near successful conspecifics (a form of social attraction) in order to benefit from the same favorable local environmental conditions. Such a performance-based conspecific attraction mechanism can thus lead to an aggregative d...

Conformity without majority? The case for demarcating social from majority influences

“…Espmark, Lampe, & Bjerke, 1989;Mundinger, 1982) and breeding site preferences (e.g. Boulinier, McCoy, Yoccoz, Gasparini, & Tveraa, 2008;Brown, Bomberger Brown, & Danchin, 2000;Danchin, Boulinier, & Massot, 1998). However, although this kind of behavioural adjustment can lead to local behavioural convergence (i.e.…”

Induced maternal response to the Lyme disease spirochaeteBorrelia burgdorferi sensu latoin a colonial seabird, the kittiwakeRissa tridactyla

“…As part of a study examining the role of host response in the dynamics of host^parasite interactions (Boulinier et al 1997;Danchin et al 1998), we investigated the presence of maternally transferred antibodies against a microparasite, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, in a spatially structured host^ectoparasite system consisting of the seabird tick Ixodes uriae and the kittiwake Rissa tridactyla. The spirochaete B. burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease, the most common and medically important vector-borne disease in Europe and the USA (Barbour & Fish 1993).…”

“…In each stage, I. uriae attaches to its host for a single, long, blood meal and then returns to the host nesting substrate to overwinter (Eveleigh & Threlfall 1974). It has previously been shown that tick prevalence and abundance are autocorrelated in both space and time at the scale of the host breeding cli¡ (Danchin et al 1998;McCoy et al 1999). As kittiwakes, like many seabirds, are highly philopatric to their breeding sites between years (Coulson & Thomas 1985), ticks become a predictable part of their breeding environment.…”

A conceptual model for migratory tundra caribou to explain and predict why shifts in spatial fidelity of breeding cows to their calving grounds are infrequent

“…We also do not have an understanding of how environmental variability plays into the relationship between calving fidelity and gregariousness-for example, Bathurst calving in 1986 occurred during a later snow melt (Sutherland & Gunn, 1996). Any relationship between calving ground fidelity and gregariousness will be complicated as the cows will be integrating current year's conditions with the previous year's performance on the calving ground (sensu colonial sea-birds which predicate nest site decisions on their previous fledging success and that of their neighbours; Danchin et al, 1998).…”

“…Increased foraging is likely through reduced vigilance (Ims, 1990;Roberts, 1996;Childress & Lung, 2003;Mooring et al, 2004) and through information from conspecifics' foraging. The cues that conspecifics learn from their neighbours about reproductive success, predators, and resources is termed 'public information' (Danchin et al, 1998;Doligez et al, 2003;2004;Donahue, 2006;Boulinier et al, 2008).…”