Experience drives innovation of new migration patterns of whooping cranes in response to global change.

ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic changes in climate and land use are driving changes in migration patterns of birds worldwide. Spatial changes in migration have been related to long-term temperature trends, but the intrinsic mechanisms by which migratory species adapt to environmental change remain largely unexplored. We show that, for a long-lived social species, older birds with more experience are critical for innovating new migration behaviours. Groups containing older, more experienced individuals establish new overwintering sites closer to the breeding grounds, leading to a rapid population-level shift in migration patterns. Furthermore, these new overwintering sites are in areas where changes in climate have increased temperatures and where food availability from agriculture is high, creating favourab

SUBMITTER: Teitelbaum CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5025849 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature