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Cultural inheritance drives site fidelity and migratory connectivity in a long‐distance migrant
Author(s) -
HARRISON XAVIER A.,
TREGENZA TOM,
INGER RICHARD,
COLHOUN KENDREW,
DAWSON DEBORAH A.,
GUDMUNDSSON GUDMUNDUR A.,
HODGSON DAVID J.,
HORSBURGH GAVIN J.,
McELWAINE GRAHAM,
BEARHOP STUART
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2010.04852.x
Subject(s) - biology , biological dispersal , philopatry , range (aeronautics) , flyway , ecology , isolation by distance , geographical distance , offspring , evolutionary biology , cultural transmission in animals , zoology , genetic structure , habitat , demography , genetics , population , genetic variation , pregnancy , materials science , sociology , gene , composite material
Cultural transmission is thought to be a mechanism by which migratory animals settle into habitats, but little evidence exists in wild populations because of the difficulty of following individuals over successive generations and wide geographical distances. Cultural inheritance of migration routes represents a mechanism whereby geographical isolation can arise between separate groups and could constrain individuals to potentially suboptimal sites within their range. Conversely, adopting the parental migratory route in adult life, rather than dispersing randomly, may increase an individual’s reproductive success because that strategy has already been proven to allow successful breeding. We combined a pedigree of related light‐bellied Brent geese ( Branta bernicla hrota ) with 6 years of observations of marked birds to calculate the dispersal distances of adult offspring from their parents in both Ireland and Iceland. In both countries, the majority of offspring were found to recruit into or near their parental sites, indicating migratory connectivity in the flyway. Despite this kin structure, we found no evidence of genetic differentiation using genotype data from 1127 individuals across 15 microsatellite loci. We suggest that the existence of migratory connectivity of subpopulations is far more common than previous research indicates and that cultural information may play an important role in structuring reproductive isolation among them.