Releases of Asian houbara must respect genetic and geographic origin to preserve inherited migration behaviour: evidence from a translocation experiment.

ABSTRACT: Maintaining appropriate migratory strategies is important in conservation; however, translocations of migratory animals may alter locally evolved migration behaviours of recipient populations if these are different and heritable. We used satellite telemetry and experimental translocation to quantify differences and assess heritability in migration behaviours between three migratory Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) breeding populations (640 km range across eastern, central and western Uzbekistan). Adults from the eastern population migrated twice as far (mean = 1184 km ± 44 s.e.) as the western population (656 km ± 183 s.e.) and showed significantly less variation in migration distance than the central population (1030 km ± 127 s.e.). The western and central populations wintered signi

SUBMITTER: Burnside RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7137974 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature