Abstract

5. Our findings suggest that the use of multiple cues reduces the negative impact of stochasticity on the reliability of social cues at small spatial scales (e. g. territories) and hence increases the probability of breeding success in the next year. Also, the use of conspecific attraction (i. e. the preference for breeding aggregations) is selectively advantageous because individuals are more likely to find a vacancy in an aggregation as compared to a solitary site. By extension, we hypothesize that species life-history traits may influence the spatial scale of prospecting behaviour and habitat selection strategies.

Keywords

conspecific attraction; cueing; floater; migratory; site fidelity; social information

Published in

Journal of Animal Ecology
2011, Volume: 80, number: 6, pages: 1227-1235

SLU Authors

• Pärt, Tomas

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Arlt, Debora

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Reading

• Low, Matthew

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Zoology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01854.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/36364