Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on October 8, 2007
Behavioral Ecology 2007 18(6):1132-1138; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm091
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/6/1132    most recent
arm091v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S.-Y.
Right arrow Articles by Drummond, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S.-Y.
Right arrow Articles by Drummond, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Lifetime philopatry in the blue-footed booby: a longitudinal study

Sin-Yeon Kim, Roxana Torres, César A. Domínguez and Hugh Drummond

Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70-275, México DF 04510, México

Address correspondence to S.-Y. Kim. E-mail: yeon{at}ecologia.unam.mx.


  Abstract

Philopatry over the lifetime and its relationship with reproductive success were examined using longitudinal records of nest location and reproduction of individual blue-footed boobies. Males showed shorter natal dispersal than females, and natal dispersal distance of both sexes were unrelated to either first reproductive success or lifetime reproductive success. Throughout the early lifetime, males and females nested closer to their first breeding sites than to their natal sites, and comparison with a simulation of successive breeding dispersals in random directions showed that male and female blue-footed boobies are philopatric to the first breeding site. Therefore, throughout the early lifetime, the first breeding site seems to function as a point of reference for breeding site use together with the previous season's site. Males and females with shorter natal dispersal distances showed stronger lifetime philopatry to their first breeding sites, suggesting stable individual variation in competitive ability or dispersal phenotype. However, early lifetime philopatry to first breeding sites was unrelated to annual breeding success. Compared with simple fidelity to previous breeding sites, lifetime philopatry to first breeding sites should result in increased kin interactions and greater selection for kin recognition, altruism and inbreeding avoidance, as well as long-term familiarity with neighbors.

Key words: fitness, longitudinal study, natal dispersal, philopatry, Sula nebouxii.

Received 23 May 2007; revised 31 August 2007; accepted 31 August 2007.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.