march, 2018
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Event Details
In long-lived species, males and females are expected to allocate their time to mating, guarding behavior and self-conditioning behavior during the breeding period. In the chick-rearing period, many species of seabirds display a unique behavioral adaptation for managing their conflicting demands known as dual foraging, in which long trips, largely for self-maintenance, are alternated with short trips, which are primarily for offspring care. In the mating period, seabirds also allocate their time to mate and to forage. However, there is no study how they manage their time during the mating period. In this study, we examined male’s and female’s allocation of their time using geolocators in streaked shearwaters. We found that females took longer trips than males and went to the more distant area of the sea. They did not change their trip length after they stay together with their partner. However, male shearwaters mainly took one-day trips, and they extended their trip length if they met their partner at the nest. This suggests that male shearwaters determine their trip length based on the presence or absence of paired female to control their time between mating and foraging.
Miho Sakao is a Ph.D. student at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. Her research interest involve the breeding biology of seabirds, and in particular she is working on the breeding behavior of streaked shearwaters.
If you would like to talk to Miho, please contact Christian Rutz.