Movement Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Origin of translocated animals is associated with time to settlement and post-translocation survival.","authors":"Seth Harju, Scott Cambrin","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00624-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00624-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Translocation of animals is a widespread tool for resolving human-wildlife conflicts and augmenting struggling wild populations. However, expected time to settlement and survival (both measures of translocation success) are often unknown, particularly as a function of the origin of translocatees. We quantified settling times using Bayesian changepoint detection models on the variance in two derived movement metrics for translocated Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) of two different origins: wild adults and adult waifs (i.e. former pets). We compared the annual home range sizes of translocated tortoises with residents, and we also compared survival of each origin group to tagged resident adults. We found that translocated tortoises from different origin groups took an average of 0.5–2.0 years, depending on origin group, to settle based on movement metrics. Waif tortoises took the longest to settle, on average, within 2 years. There was high individual heterogeneity in settling times among tortoises. Home range sizes were larger for translocated wild tortoises than for resident adults only in the year of translocation. Home range sizes of translocated waif females and males were larger than those of residents, but only for the first two years post-translocation. After accounting for a strong year effect, annual survival rates were not different between resident adults (0.91; 90% CI 0.78–0.98) and translocated wild adults (0.90; 0.67–0.99); survival of waif adults was lower than residents, albeit with overlapping confidence intervals, at an annual rate of 0.80 (0.56–0.95) over the 11-year study. We provide results and discussion of using Bayesian models to identify fundamental changes in the variance of distance from release site and directional movement rate (e.g. erratic versus deliberate movements) to determine translocation success. We also provide guidance for managers of Mojave desert tortoise translocation projects and the translocation of animals in general.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12895592/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do GPS collars and coded neckbands tell the same story about year-round movements in geese?","authors":"Mariëlle L van Toor, Christen H Fleming, Niklas Liljebäck, Johan Månsson, Jonas Waldenström, Johan Elmberg","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00620-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00620-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>GPS telemetry has become the norm for the tracking of large-bodied bird species, whereas management and conservation of populations often rely on low-tech methods such as capture-mark-resighting (CMR). Direct evaluations of the comparability of the respective outcome from these methods remain rare despite being crucial for comparative studies and management decisions. Here, we investigated whether GPS tracking and CMR lead to same conclusions about seasonal migration and year-round space use. We chose greylag geese (Anser anser) as a study species, for which a long record of both coded neckband reports and GPS tracking are available, and whose management relies on CMR data.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Our data set was comprised of neckband reports and GPS tracks collected for birds from five capture sites in Sweden (n = 665 neckband birds; n = 156 GPS collar birds). We evaluated the similarity of movement metrics and year-round space use derived from continuous-time movement models and auto-correlated kernel density estimators. We further quantified overlap of spatial range estimates between tracking methods for the breeding period and the wintering season. We approximated spatial observation bias by contrasting range estimates estimated with and without the use of a debiasing algorithm.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that estimates of space use derived from CMR and GPS tracking were in general agreement: average year-round space use for most individuals was similar even if means among tracking methods differed among all individuals per method (CMR: [Formula: see text]; GPS: [Formula: see text]), and mean overlap of range estimates for summer and winter did not differ depending on whether the comparison was with the same, or differing tracking methods. Movement metrics differed considerably between methods whenever the CMR data captured behaviour at a different temporal scale than GPS (position & velocity autocorrelation), and else in agreement with GPS tracking (periodicity).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our study suggests that the historical and current use of coded neckband data for greylag goose management decisions is appropriate regarding space use of migratory greylag geese in Europe. Understanding whether the existing reporter network can capture changes to the migratory behaviour of greylag geese including short-stopping of migration will however require additional in-depth analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12829013/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145960977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nesting strategy reflects individual worker movement in termites.","authors":"Kensei Kikuchi, Thomas Bourguignon, Nobuaki Mizumoto","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00612-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00612-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Termite nests widely vary in size and complexity across species. While nest structure reflects the social organisation of termite colonies, its impact on individual-level behaviour is unknown. Here, we show that termite worker movements are strongly correlated with their nesting strategies. We compared one-piece nesters, whose colony life cycle is completed within a single piece of wood serving as nest and food, to foragers, which make colonies exploiting resources spanning several wood items. Our observations of worker movements revealed that one-piece nesters moved significantly less than foragers. The distributions of movement duration were also different, with foragers showing a tendency to sustain locomotion once initiated, while the locomotion of one-piece nesters stopped within a short period. On the contrary, the distributions of pausing duration were broadly consistent across species, with a notable exception in C. formosanus. Spatial analyses further showed that foragers exhibited stronger wall-following behavior and traversed the arena center more straightly than one-piece nesters. Thus, nesting strategies are reflected not only in movement activities but also in the spatial exploration of novel environments. These findings provide a new framework for understanding how nesting strategies drive the evolution of movement patterns across social species.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"88"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12751460/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145859035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fast food: GPS tracking reveals behavior-specific habitat selection and cattle farm subsidies of three sympatric neotropical vulture species.","authors":"Christopher Beirne, Enzo Basso, Eduardo Fabrizio Tubelli, Sarah Wicks, Eleanor Flatt, Diego Rolim Chulla, Rosio Vega Quispe, Caleb Jonatan Quispe Quispe, Flor Maria Perez Mullisaca, Sara Campos Landázuri, Priscila Peralta-Aguilar, Andrew Whitworth","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00610-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00610-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding species responses to anthropogenic disturbance is fundamental to ecology and conservation. However, behaviour and inter-individual variation in habitat selection can complicate our understanding of population-level responses to human disturbance, and the initiatives we design to address them. We use a dataset of 601,000 locations from 42 GPS tracked individuals of three sympatric species - king (n = 32), turkey (n = 5) and black vultures (n = 5) - in Costa Rica to explore behaviour-specific habitat selection in a mixed forest-agriculture landscape. We separate the movement data into three key behaviours (flight, feeding and roosting), and then compare their habitat selection preferences using a species-specific generalised mixed modelling framework. We find that the disturbance sensitive king vultures typically prefer mature forest to anthropogenically modified habitats when flying or roosting, however, the difference in relative strength of selection disappears in relation to feeding. These patterns likely reflect king vultures selecting to feed in agricultural landscapes where dead livestock such as cattle are abundant. We find strong evidence for individual heterogeneity in the degree to which they select for livestock pasture as feeding sites, suggesting repeatable individual-variation in foraging tactics. We also found a strong reduction in habitat selection for all behaviours as the distance to contiguous high-quality habitat increases, showing the reliance on tracts of contiguous mature forest for this species. In comparison, the disturbance tolerant species showed idiosyncratic responses to modified habitats, whereby black vultures selected mature forests for flight, but disturbed forest and grassland margins for feeding and roosting, and turkey vultures selected disturbed forest over mature forest and grassland margins for all movement behaviours. These findings represent the first GPS derived habitat selection study of king vultures, the apex obligate scavengers in lowland neotropical habitats and the first multispecies, guild-level, habitat selection analysis of vultures in the lowland neotropics. As expected, we find that king vultures have a stronger affinity to mature forests than their disturbance tolerant counterparts, however cattle farming is likely strongly subsidising some individuals' diets. Despite this, the marked reduction in king vulture habitat use with increasing distances from contiguous mature forests suggests the existence of a disturbance threshold, whereby the carrying capacity of king vulture populations may be reduced in highly anthropogenically modified landscapes.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"87"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12751625/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145859023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of signal in saltatory pursuit of cryptic stationary targets.","authors":"Eden J Forbes, Peter M Todd, Randall D Beer","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00611-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00611-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Saltatory movement strategies in animal search are well known, but their role in pursuit and localization of targets is less so. There are multiple features of forager-target interactions that may generate saltatory forager movement during pursuit and/or localization of the target. Here, we explore how the reliability of the target's signal and the dependence of the forager's perception of that signal on the forager's own motion can generate a variety of different continuous and saltatory pursuit patterns in evolved model foragers with stationary targets.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We use dynamical analyses of evolved forager nervous systems to show the possible mechanisms through which saltatory movement was generated and how signals influence those movements in a foraging animal.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Saltatory movement during pursuit independent of signal was routinely found when the forager's perception depended on its movement. Saltatory movement patterns could also be generated in otherwise cruise-like behaviors when target signal either excited or inhibited ongoing forager movement. Additionally, the magnitude of the signal's influence was found to depend on proximity to the target during pursuit.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These models present hypotheses for future empirical research and emphasize the importance of exploring variation in animal movement during different phases of foraging.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"89"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12751294/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145858966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Giant anteaters on the move: native habitat selection and behavioral responses to land use change.","authors":"Ana Yoko Ykeuti Meiga, Arnaud Leonard Jean Desbiez, Rubem A P Dornas, Nina Attias, Aline Giroux, Denis Valle","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00616-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00616-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BACKGROUND: Landscape fragmentation and habitat loss are major drivers of global biodiversity decline. Understanding how animals adjust their behavior in response to these threats and adapt to human-altered environments is essential for developing effective conservation strategies. In this study, we apply Bayesian models to a unique movement dataset to explore how landscape transformation influences behavioral patterns in the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla; Pilosa; Mammalia), a vulnerable species with limited physiological thermoregulatory capacity and strong behavioral responses to environmental changes. METHODS: We used an extensive GPS tracking dataset from 41 giant anteaters in the Brazilian savanna—a biodiversity hotspot facing extensive landscape alteration due to land-use and land-cover change. We used the Time-Explicit habitat selection model to investigate giant anteater sex-based differences in habitat selection. Additionally, we evaluated how habitat types influence the species’ activity patterns using a nonparametric Bayesian Hidden Markov model. RESULTS: Our study reveals that giant anteaters change their movement patterns in response to land use and land cover change. Individuals spent more time in and selected native habitats compared to human-modified habitats, regardless of sex. The time spent on, and selection for, native habitats are likely due to greater resources such as food, shelter, and protection from predation. Additionally, giant anteaters are more likely to rest in native habitats while being more active in human-disturbed areas. CONCLUSION: Our research reveals the negative impact of human-disturbed landscapes on animal movement. Consistent with our expectations, giant anteaters spend more time in native habitats and tend to avoid areas with high human disturbance, underscoring the urgent need for conservation efforts in degraded landscapes. Understanding how different land use and land cover classes influence animal habitat selection and activity patterns is essential for assessing the species’ adaptability and ecological requirements in human-modified environments. Our findings can guide the prioritization of critical areas for conservation and restoration, offering valuable insights for policymakers and supporting the effective management of this vulnerable species and the Brazilian savanna. </p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12805733/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145829018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A combination of environmental and landscape variables drives movement and habitat use in two Anaxyrus toads.","authors":"Alexander M Ferentinos, Courtney E Check, Olivia Windorf, Matthias Leu","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00613-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00613-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BACKGROUND: Movement patterns provide valuable information to guide habitat management strategies for declining amphibian populations. However, our understanding of movement ecology in amphibians is incomplete, as previous research has focused largely on environmental conditions driving movements rather than habitat drivers or landscape context. Here, we document the movement patterns of eastern American (Anaxyrus americanus americanus) and Fowler’s (Anaxyrus fowleri) toads as they transitioned from the breeding to the nonbreeding season. Specifically, we estimated the median distance migrated from breeding sites, identified the environmental and landscape level drivers of movement, estimated site fidelity to refugia on the basis of random walks, and evaluated refugia microhabitat use. METHODS: We tracked both taxa between late spring and summer in 2017, 2018, and 2023 in Virgina, USA. In total, we collected movement data from 46 eastern American and 57 Fowler’s toads on the basis of a combination of Harmonic Direction-Finding (HDF) and radiotelemetry relocation techniques. RESULTS: Median distance moved from breeding grounds was similar for eastern American (63 m; interquartile range [IQR]: 43–122 m) and Fowler’s toads (64 m; IQR: 31–73 m), but the distribution of distances differed between the two taxa. Toads were more likely to move when minimum temperatures were high, after rain, in an area with a high proportion of conifers, and when far from water. Toads moved further when far away from trails. The probability and distance of a move differed among years. Both taxa exhibited site fidelity to daily refugia. Eastern American toads used woody structures and leaf litter as refugia more frequently than Fowler’s toad. CONCLUSIONS: The distances which we tracked toads from their breeding grounds suggest that current regulations to protect amphibians are not biologically sound. To protect amphibians from decline, we suggest habitats should be protected at biologically meaningful scales based on data from tracking studies. Our results indicate that toads appear to use human trails as feeding substrates based on their activity and pattern of movement in relation to them. Trails likely improve foraging success by making invertebrate prey more obvious. </p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12836811/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145822030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Overwinter movement ecology of two Sparrow species in southeastern Ohio.","authors":"Jacob E Morgan, Kelly A Williams","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00617-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00617-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anthropogenic development and land use changes, including habitat loss and fragmentation, have resulted in the decline of many North American birds. Overwintering birds need food resources to meet energetic demands, thermal refugia to reduce energetic costs, and cover to avoid predation. To address how overwintering birds navigate human-dominated landscapes, including the response to a prescribed burn, we used automated and manual radiotelemetry to quantify the overwinter habitat use by Slate-colored Juncos (Junco hyemalis) and American Tree Sparrows (Spizelloides arborea) in southeastern Ohio during the winters of 2023 and 2024. Slate-colored Junco mean home range size was 17.0 ha (95% CI: 15.1–18.9) while American Tree Sparrow mean home range size was 27.1 ha (95% CI: 24.3–30.1). Although habitat use and habitat breadth differed between the two species, both selected edges and used residential areas and roads. Juncos selected or used tall field and forests proportionally, depending on site and year. Slate-colored Juncos used shrublands proportionally but avoided short fields. In contrast, American Tree Sparrows used tall and short fields throughout the winter and we documented a shift in habitat use in response to prescribed fire. Before the prescribed fire, American Tree Sparrows selected shrublands and used forests proportionally, but after the burn, selected burnt fields, used shrublands, and avoided forests. Temporal variation in habitat use by Slate-colored Juncos and American Tree Sparrows highlights the importance in understanding how fluctuation in resource availability due to seasonal variation and management affect the use of habitat patches within the landscape. Public and private landowners can support overwintering granivorous birds by providing tall field, edge, and shrubland habitat while reducing lawn and other mowed fields.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"90"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12752064/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145812313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential impacts of wind and waves on albatross flight performance in two ocean basins.","authors":"Ian J Maywar, Richard A Phillips, Rachael A Orben, Melinda G Conners, Scott A Shaffer, Lesley H Thorne","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00614-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00614-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BACKGROUND: Albatrosses can commute long distances to feed during the breeding season by avoiding energetically costly flapping flight. Energy from both wind and waves can be used to sustain soaring and reduce flapping flight, yet most studies of albatross flight have focused solely on the influence of wind. METHODS: To examine how wind and waves allow albatrosses to reduce energetic costs by limiting flapping flight, we analyzed how the flap rates of five albatross species (370 individuals) across two ocean basins varied with wind speed and swell height. RESULTS: For all study species, soaring using both wind and waves resulted in an 89–93% reduction in the number of flaps per hour and thus more energetically efficient flight. We found notable differences in the relative importance of wind and waves for albatrosses breeding in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific. The flap rates of Southern Ocean species, black-browed (Thalassarche melanophris), grey-headed (T. chrysostoma), and wandering (Diomedea exulans) albatrosses, were better explained by variability in windspeed whereas those of North Pacific species, black-footed (Phoebastria nigripes) and Laysan (P. immutabilis) albatrosses, were better explained by variability in swell height. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that Southern Ocean species relied more on dynamic soaring by exploiting winds whereas North Pacific species relied more on wave-slope soaring using swells. This divergence in behavior is likely the result of differences in the regional winds and swells between the two ocean basins. Although windspeeds experienced by albatrosses in both oceans were similar, North Pacific species experienced greater swell heights, likely allowing them to extract more wind energy from waves than albatrosses in the Southern Ocean. Our research highlights the importance of both wind and waves for albatross movement and the need to better understand environmental impacts on physiological drivers of foraging energetics to assess responses of seabirds to a rapidly changing climate. </p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12781567/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145800856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unexpected migration patterns in a high-latitude breeding songbird: evidence from multi-sensor geolocators and isotopes.","authors":"Stephanie J Szarmach, Johanna K Beam, Mads Moore, Benjamin M Van Doren, Alan Brelsford, David P L Toews","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00618-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00618-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Migratory birds often exhibit within-species variation in migration routes and non-breeding areas, yet the mechanisms shaping these patterns remain poorly understood, particularly in high-latitude breeding populations. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain why birds follow particular routes: optimal migration theory proposes that routes minimizing time or energy expenditure are favored, whereas the historical contingency hypothesis posits that routes are shaped by past range expansion, sometimes resulting in \"suboptimal\" migrations. We investigated whether distance minimization or historical contingency more strongly influenced migration routes in high-latitude breeding myrtle warblers (Setophaga coronata coronata), which indirect evidence previously suggested follow a shorter route to the Pacific Coast rather than the core Gulf Coast nonbreeding area.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We tracked the migrations of six Alaskan myrtle warblers using geolocators measuring both light and atmospheric pressure and inferred nonbreeding areas using hydrogen isotopes for a larger sample of birds breeding in Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta (n = 167). Additionally, we compared migration tracks derived from light-level data exclusively with those that incorporated atmospheric pressure.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Contrary to expectations, all geolocator-tracked birds and most with stable isotope data migrated to the southeastern United States, with just 5% of individuals possibly wintering on the Pacific Coast. Using pressure data allowed us to resolve migration routes and timing more precisely than traditional light-level methods, while also elucidating flight altitude and fine-scale elevational movements.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We found that myrtle warblers breeding in northwestern North America migrate farther than previously thought, despite being generally regarded as a relatively short-distance migrant. Our findings contradict previous studies that suggested myrtle warblers breeding in Alaska and northern British Columbia typically follow a shorter migration route to the Pacific Coast. This seemingly suboptimal route-similar to routes followed by the few other songbirds tracked from the region-is consistent with the historical contingency hypothesis, which proposes that migration routes reflect past range expansions. We recommend that researchers conducting geolocation studies leverage tags with barometers, as the additional atmospheric pressure data greatly improved our ability to characterize migration at a fine scale over the full annual cycle.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12829184/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145800874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}