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Bright moonlight triggers natal dispersal departures

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Abstract

Upon leaving their natal area, dispersers are confronted with unknown terrains. Species-specific perceptual ranges (i.e. the maximum distance from which an individual can perceive landscape features) play a crucial role in spatial movement decisions during such wanderings. In nocturnal animals that rely on vision, perceptual range is dramatically enhanced during moonlight, compared to moonless conditions. This increase of the perceptual range is an overlooked element that may be responsible for the successful crossing of unfamiliar areas during dispersal. The information gathered from 143 radio-tagged eagle owl Bubo bubo juveniles in Spain, Finland and Switzerland shows that, although the decision to initiate dispersal is mainly an endogenous phenomenon determined by the attainment of a given age (∼6 months), dispersers leave their birthplace primarily under the best light conditions at night, i.e. when most of the lunar disc is illuminated. This sheds new light into the mechanisms that may trigger dispersal from parental territory.

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Acknowledgments

A special thanks to an anonymous referee and Hannu Pietiäinen, who helped us to improve the manuscript, and Heikki Lokki and Jyrki Savolainen who helped during fieldwork. The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2012–33240, FEDER co-financing), Junta de Andalucía (Excellence Project, RNM-5090), and Swiss MAVA Foundation funded this study. MD and AK received postdoctoral grants (nos 140367 and 132828) from the Academy of Finland.

Ethical standards

We manipulated and marked owls under: (1) Spanish Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Medio Ambiente authorizations no. SCFFS-AFR/GGG RS-260/02 and SCFFS-AFR/CMM RS-1904/02; (2) Finnish regional Centres for Economic Development, Transport and Environment; and (3) Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, C.S.I.C., c/ Americo Vespucio s/n, 41092, Seville, Spain

    Vincenzo Penteriani

  2. Metapopulation Research Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    María del Mar Delgado

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Anna Kuparinen

  4. Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Anna Kuparinen

  5. Finnish Museum of Natural History, Zoology Unit, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Vincenzo Penteriani, Pertti Saurola & Jari Valkama

  6. Paloniityntie 90, Forssa, Finland

    Eino Salo

  7. Taatilantie 74, Tarttila, Finland

    Jere Toivola

  8. Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Adrian Aebischer & Raphaël Arlettaz

  9. Research Unit of Biodiversity (UMIB, UO-CSIC-PA), Oviedo University - Campus Mieres, 33600, Mieres, Spain

    Vincenzo Penteriani

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  1. Vincenzo Penteriani
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Correspondence to Vincenzo Penteriani.

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Communicated by E. Korpimäki

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Penteriani, V., del Mar Delgado, M., Kuparinen, A. et al. Bright moonlight triggers natal dispersal departures. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 743–747 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1687-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1687-x

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