Data from: High foraging site fidelity and spatial segregation among individual great black-backed gulls

Borrmann RM, Phillips RA, Clay TA, Garthe S. 2019. Data from: High foraging site fidelity and spatial segregation among individual great black-backed gulls. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h

Abstract

Individual foraging site fidelity, whereby individuals repeatedly visit the same foraging areas, is widespread in nature, and likely benefits individuals through higher foraging efficiency and potentially, higher breeding success. It may arise as a consequence of habitat or resource specialisation, or alternatively, where resources are abundant or predictable, the partitioning of space might guarantee individuals exclusive foraging opportunities. We tracked seven adult great black‐backed gulls Larus marinus at a North Sea colony from early incubation to the end of the breeding season in 2016, providing a total of 1,170 foraging trips over a mean ± SD tracking period of 67 ± 16 days. There was clear spatial segregation between individuals, with almost no overlap of their core areas (50% utilisation distribution) during incubation and chick‐rearing. Core areas were relatively small and there was high repeatability (R ± SE) in foraging parameters, including initial departure direction (0.73 ± 0.11), foraging range (0.41 ± 0.14) and cumulative distance travelled (0.19 ± 0.1) throughout the breeding season. Despite the low spatial overlap, there was little evidence of differential habitat use by individuals. The near‐exclusive individual foraging areas of this species, usually considered to be a generalist, indicate that where there is high resource availability throughout the breeding season and a small local population, individuals appear to adopt a territorial strategy which likely reduces intraspecific competition.

Keywords

Larus marinus,animal movement,animal tracking,great black-backed gull,Larus marinus,movement ecology,seabirds,site fidelity,territoriality,Wadden Sea

Taxa

Taxon

Larus marinus

Great Black-backed Gull

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02156

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.1003

BibTex

@misc{001/1_ht5jf68h,
  title = {Data from: High foraging site fidelity and spatial segregation among individual great black-backed gulls},
  author = {Borrmann, RM and Phillips, RA and Clay, TA and Garthe, S},
  year = {2019},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h
T1  - Data from: High foraging site fidelity and spatial segregation among individual great black-backed gulls
AU  - Borrmann, Rahel M.
AU  - Phillips, Richard A.
AU  - Clay, Thomas A.
AU  - Garthe, Stefan
Y1  - 2019/11/24
KW  - Larus marinus
KW  - animal foraging
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - great black-backed gull
KW  - Larus marinus
KW  - movement ecology
KW  - seabirds
KW  - site fidelity
KW  - territoriality
KW  - Wadden Sea
KW  - Larus marinus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.ht5jf68h
ER  -

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