Personality-dependent breeding dispersal in rural but not urban burrowing owls.

ABSTRACT: Dispersal propensity has been correlated with personality traits, conspecific density and predation risk in a variety of species. Thus, changes in the relative frequency of behavioural phenotypes or in the ecological pressures faced by individuals in contrasting habitats can have unexpected effects on their dispersal strategies. Here, using the burrowing owl Athene cunicularia as a study model, we test whether changes in the behavioural profile of individuals and changes in conspecific density and predation pressure associated with urban life influence their breeding dispersal decisions compared to rural conspecifics. Our results show that breeding dispersal behaviour differs between rural and urban individuals. Site fidelity was lower among rural than among urban birds, and primarily rela

SUBMITTER: Luna A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6393437 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature