Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mortality-minimizing sandpipers vary stopover behavior dependent on age and geographic proximity to migrating predators

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ecological theory for long-distance avian migration considers time-, energy-, and mortality-minimizing tactics, but predictions about the latter have proven elusive. Migrants must make behavioral decisions that can favor either migratory speed or safety from predators, but often not both. We compare the behavior of adult and juvenile western sandpipers Calidris mauri during the course of their temporally segregated passages at a major stopover site. Here, the passage and winter arrival of an important predator, the peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus begins near the end of the adult sandpiper passage (July) and increases rapidly through the juvenile passage (August). The mortality-minimizing hypothesis predicts that as the falcon front is distant but approaching, sandpipers should initially increase the fuel-loading rate (lowered vigilance and predator apprehension) to increase migration speed and so maintain their head start. As the falcon front gains proximity to and passes over the stopover site, sandpipers should become increasingly cautious. Our measurements show that adults decreased vigilance during the period prior to falcon arrival, and had lower vigilance overall than juveniles. Juveniles were more apprehensive, flying further and longer in response to disturbance by a falcon silhouette. This trend was reversed in response to a human approach. Both groups were more vigilant and more apprehensive in a study year with earlier falcon arrival. These results suggest that late (juvenile) and early (adult) migrants minimize mortality on migration in different ways, adults by increased migratory speed at the expense of caution on stopover sites, and juveniles by increased caution at the expense of speed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alerstam T (2011) Optimal bird migration revisited. J Ornithol 152:5–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alerstam T, Lindström Å (1990) Optimal bird migration: the relative importance of time, energy and safety. In: Gwinner E (ed) Bird migration: the physiology and ecophysiology. Springer, Berlin, pp 331–351

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp G (2009) How does food density influence vigilance in birds and mammals? Anim Behav 78:223–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp G (2013) Social foragers adopt a riskier foraging mode in the centre of their groups. Biol Lett 9:20130528

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blumstein DT (2003) Flight-initiation distance in birds is dependent on intruder starting distance. J Wildl Manage 67:852–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler RW, Kaiser GW, Smith GEJ (1987) Migration chronology, length of stay, sex-ratio, and weight of western sandpipers (Calidris mauri) on the south coast of British Columbia. J Field Ornithol 58:103–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Caro TM (2005) Antipredator defenses in birds and mammals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Interspecific interactions

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WE (2005) When and how do predator starting distances affect flight initiation distances? Can J Zool 83:1045–1050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WE (2009) Fleeing and hiding under simultaneous risks and costs. Behav Ecol 20:665–671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dekker D, Ydenberg R (2004) Raptor predation on wintering dunlins in relation to the tidal cycle. Condor 106:415–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dierschke V (1998) High profit at high risk for juvenile dunlins Calidris alpina stopping over at Helgoland (German bight). Ardea 86:59–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Duijns S, van Dijk JGB, Spaans B, Jukema J, de Boer WF, Piersma T (2009) Foraging site selection of two subspecies of bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica: time minimizers accept greater predation danger than energy minimizers. Ardea 97:51–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elgar MA (1989) Predator vigilance and group-size in mammals and birds: a critical review of the empirical evidence. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 64:13–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Farmer AH, Wiens JA (1999) Models and reality: time-energy trade-offs in pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) migration. Ecology 80:2566–2580

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernández G, Lank DB (2010) Do sex and habitat differences in antipredator behavior of western sandpipers Calidris mauri reflect cumulative or compensatory processes? J Ornithol 151:665–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franks SE, Norris DR, Kyser TK, Fernandez G, Schwarz B et al (2012) Range-wide patterns of migratory connectivity in the western sandpiper Calidris mauri. J Avian Biol 43:155–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franks SE, Lank DB, Wilson WH (2014) Western sandpiper (Calidris mauri). The birds of North America online. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fransson T, Weber TP (1997) Migratory fuelling in blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) under perceived risk of predation. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 41:75–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frid A, Dill L (2002) Human-caused disturbance stimuli as a form of predation risk. Conserv Ecol 6:11–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Haftorn S (2000) Contexts and possible functions of alarm calling in the willow tit, Parus montanus; the principle of 'better safe than sorry'. Behaviour 137:437–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedenström A, Sunada S (1999) On the aerodynamics of moult gaps in birds. J Exp Biol 202:67–76

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hope DD, Lank DB, Smith BD, Ydenberg RC (2011) Migration of two calidrid sandpiper species on the predator landscape: how stopover time and hence migration speed vary with geographical proximity to danger. J Avian Biol 42:522–529

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lank DB, Butler RW, Ireland J, Ydenberg RC (2003) Effects of predation danger on migration strategies of sandpipers. Oikos 103:303–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lima SL (1995) Back to the basics of antipredatory vigilance—the group-size effect. Anim Behav 49:11–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lima SL, Bednekoff PA (1999) Temporal variation in danger drives antipredator behavior: the predation risk allocation hypothesis. Am Nat 153:649–659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind J, Cresswell W (2006) Anti-predation behaviour during bird migration; the benefit of studying multiple behavioural dimensions. J Ornithol 147:310–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchetti K, Price T (1989) Differences in the foraging of juvenile and adult birds—the importance of developmental constraints. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 64:51–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGowan A, Cresswell W, Ruxton GD (2002) The effects of daily weather variation on foraging and responsiveness to disturbance in overwintering red knot Calidris canutus. Ardea 90:229–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe NB, Furness RW (1984) Changing priorities—the effect of pre-migratory fattening on the trade-off between foraging and vigilance. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 15:203–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nebel S, Ydenberg R (2005) Differential predator escape performance contributes to a latitudinal sex ratio cline in a migratory shorebird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 59:44–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niehaus AC, Ydenberg RC (2006) Ecological factors associated with the breeding and migratory phenology of high-latitude breeding western sandpipers. Polar Biol 30:11–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Hara PD, Lank DB, Delgado FS (2002) Is the timing of moult altered by migration? Evidence from a comparison of age and residency classes of western sandpipers Calidris mauri in Panama. Ardea 90:61–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Pomeroy AC (2006) Tradeoffs between food abundance and predation danger in spatial usage of a stopover site by western sandpipers, Calidris mauri. Oikos 112:629–637

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pomeroy AC, Butler RW, Ydenberg RC (2006) Experimental evidence that migrants adjust usage at a stopover site to trade off food and danger. Behav Ecol 17:1041–1045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rappole JH (1995) The ecology of migrant birds: a neotropical perspective. Smithsonian Institution, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Relyea RA (2003) How prey respond to combined predators: a review and an empirical test. Ecology 84:1827–1839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sansom A, Lind J, Cresswell W (2009) Individual behavior and survival: the roles of predator avoidance, foraging success, and vigilance. Behav Ecol 20:1168–1174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider DC, Harrington BA (1981) Timing of shorebird migration in relation to prey depletion. Auk 98:801–811

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein RW, Williams TD (2006) Causes and consequences of post-growth age-dependent differences in small intestine size in a migratory sandpiper (Calidris mauri, western sandpiper). Funct Ecol 20:142–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Summers RW, Underhill LG, PrysJones RP (1995) Why do young waders in Southern Africa delay their first return migration to the breeding grounds? Ardea 83:351–357

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor CM, Lank DB, Pomeroy AC, Ydenberg RC (2007) Relationship between stopover site choice of migrating sandpipers, their population status, and environmental stressors. Isr J Ecol Evol 53:245–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ydenberg RC, Dill LM (1986) The economics of fleeing from predators. Adv Stud Behav 16:229–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ydenberg RC, Butler RW, Lank DB, Guglielmo CG, Lemon M, Wolf N (2002) Trade-offs, condition dependence and stopover site selection by migrating sandpipers. J Avian Biol 33:47–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ydenberg RC, Butler RW, Lank DB (2007) Effects of predator landscapes on the evolutionary ecology of routing, timing and molt by long-distance migrants. J Avian Biol 38:523–529

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zar JH (1999) Biostatistical analysis, 4th edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are particularly indebted to K. Richards for her hard work in conducting field trials of falcon silhouette exposure to shorebirds. C. Smith and M. Court provided administrative assistance. The NSERC of Canada, Environment Canada, and the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University provided financial support. All field procedures were approved by the Simon Fraser University Animal Care Committee (no. 838B-03). G. Beauchamp and an anonymous reviewer provided insighful comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Ethical standards

All experiments in this manuscript comply with the current laws of Canada, the country in which the experiments were performed.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Wildlife Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, V5A 1S6, Canada

    David D. Hope, David B. Lank & Ronald C. Ydenberg

Authors
  1. David D. Hope
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David B. Lank
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ronald C. Ydenberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David D. Hope.

Additional information

Communicated by P. A. Bednekoff

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(PDF 89.7 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hope, D.D., Lank, D.B. & Ydenberg, R.C. Mortality-minimizing sandpipers vary stopover behavior dependent on age and geographic proximity to migrating predators. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 827–838 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1695-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1695-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation