TY  - JOUR
AU  - Thiebot Jean-Baptiste, Bost Charles-André
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Mates but not sexes differ in migratory niche in a monogamous penguin species
JO  - Biology Letters
SP  - 20150429
VL  - 11
IS  - 9
N2  - Strong pair bonds generally increase fitness in monogamous organisms, but may also underlie the risk of hampering it when re-pairing fails after the winter season. We investigated whether partners would either maintain contact or offset this risk by exploiting sex-specific favourable niches during winter in a migratory monogamous seabird, the southern rockhopper penguin Eudyptes chrysocome. Using light-based geolocation, we show that although the spatial distribution of both sexes largely overlapped, pair-wise mates were located on average 595 {+/-} 260 km (and up to 2500 km) apart during winter. Stable isotope data also indicated a marked overlap between sex-specific isotopic niches ({delta}13C and{delta} 15N values) but a segregation of the feeding habitats ({delta}13C values) within pairs. Importantly, the tracked females remained longer (12 days) at sea than males, but all re-mated with their previous partners after winter. Our study provides multiple evidence that migratory species may well demonstrate pair-wise segregation even in the absence of sex-specific winter niches (spatial and isotopic). We suggest that dispersive migration patterns with sex-biased timings may be a sufficient proximal cause for generating such a situation in migratory animals.
SN  - 1744-9561
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0429
N1  - exported from refbase (http://publi.ipev.fr/polar_references/show.php?record=6236), last updated on Sat, 06 Jul 2024 06:59:25 +0200
ID  - ThiebotJean-Baptiste2015
ER  -