Nocturnal foraging lifts time constraints in winter for migratory geese but hardly speeds up fueling.

ABSTRACT: Climate warming advances the optimal timing of breeding for many animals. For migrants to start breeding earlier, a concurrent advancement of migration is required, including premigratory fueling of energy reserves. We investigate whether barnacle geese are time constrained during premigratory fueling and whether there is potential to advance or shorten the fueling period to allow an earlier migratory departure. We equipped barnacle geese with GPS trackers and accelerometers to remotely record birds' behavior, from which we calculated time budgets. We examined how time spent foraging was affected by the available time (during daylight and moonlit nights) and thermoregulation costs. We used an energetic model to assess onset and rates of fueling and whether geese can further advance fueling

SUBMITTER: Lameris TK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8177807 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature