摘要
The traditional narrative of the life cycle of migratory birds is that individuals perform long-distance movements between a breeding and a wintering site, but are largely resident at those sites. Although this pattern may apply to socially monogamous species with biparental care, in polygamous systems, the sex that only provides gametes may benefit from continuing to move and sample several potential breeding sites during a single breeding season. Such behaviour would blur the distinction between migration and breeding. We used satellite telemetry to study movements during the breeding season of males of the ruff Calidris pugnax, a lekking wader with a polygynous mating system and female-only parental care. Ruffs have a unique life-history, with three distinct genetically determined male mating strategies: aggressive ‘independents’, submissive ‘satellites’, and female-mimicking ‘faeders’. Within the breeding season, ruff males visited up to 23 sites (median: 11) and travelled up to 9029 km (median: 4435 km) covering a considerable part of their known breeding range. All three male morphs displayed breeding site sampling, indicating that they might gain similar benefits from this behaviour. Our findings suggest that large-scale breeding range sampling may be a common feature of migratory species with female-only care and strong male-male competition.
摘要译文
关于候鸟生命周期的传统说法是，个体在繁殖地和越冬地之间执行长距离移动，但大部分都栖息在这些地点。 虽然这种模式可能适用于具有双亲照料的社会一夫一妻制物种，但在一夫多妻制中，只提供配子的性别可能受益于在单个繁殖季节继续移动和采样几个潜在的繁殖地点。 这种行为会混淆迁徙和繁殖之间的区别。 我们使用卫星遥测技术来研究Calidris pugnax的雄性在繁殖季节的运动，这是一种一夫多妻制和只有雌性亲代照料的游荡者。 Ruffs有着独特的生活史，有三种不同的由基因决定的男性交配策略：好斗的“独立”，顺从的“卫星”和模仿女性的“feders”。 在繁殖季节内，雄鼠访问了多达23个地点（中位数：11个），行程长达9029公里（中位数：4435公里），覆盖了它们已知繁殖范围的相当一部分。 所有三个雄性变种都显示了繁殖地点的采样，表明它们可能从这种行为中获得类似的好处。 我们的研究结果提示，大规模的繁殖范围取样可能是迁徙物种的共同特征，只有雌性照料和强烈的雄雄竞争。
Bart Kempenaers; Mihai Valcu; Theunis Piersma; Peter Santema;Raf Vervoort. Large-scale sampling of potential breeding sites in male ruffs[J]. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 2025,292(2038)