Prospecting movements link phenotypic traits to female annual potential fitness in a nocturnal predator.

ABSTRACT: Recent biologging technology reveals hidden life and breeding strategies of nocturnal animals. Combining animal movement patterns with individual characteristics and landscape features can uncover meaningful behaviours that directly influence fitness. Consequently, defining the proximate mechanisms and adaptive value of the identified behaviours is of paramount importance. Breeding female barn owls (Tyto alba), a colour-polymorphic species, recurrently visit other nest boxes at night. We described and quantified this behaviour for the first time, linking it with possible drivers, and individual fitness. We GPS-equipped 178 female barn owls and 122 male partners from 2016 to 2020 in western Switzerland during the chick rearing phase. We observed that 111 (65%) of the tracked breeding female

SUBMITTER: Becciu P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10050157 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature