Authors
Emily L Weiser, Richard B Lanctot, Stephen C Brown, José A Alves, Phil F Battley, Rebecca Bentzen, Joël Bêty, Mary Anne Bishop, Megan Boldenow, Loïc Bollache, Bruce Casler, Maureen Christie, Jonathan T Coleman, Jesse R Conklin, Willow B English, H River Gates, Olivier Gilg, Marie-Andrée Giroux, Ken Gosbell, Chris Hassell, Jim Helmericks, Andrew Johnson, Borgný Katrínardóttir, Kari Koivula, Eunbi Kwon, Jean-Francois Lamarre, Johannes Lang, David B Lank, Nicolas Lecomte, Joe Liebezeit, Vanessa Loverti, Laura McKinnon, Clive Minton, David Mizrahi, Erica Nol, Veli-Matti Pakanen, Johanna Perz, Ron Porter, Jennie Rausch, Jeroen Reneerkens, Nelli Rönkä, Sarah Saalfeld, Nathan Senner, Benoît Sittler, Paul A Smith, Kristine Sowl, Audrey Taylor, David H Ward, Stephen Yezerinac, Brett K Sandercock
Publication date
2016/12
Journal
Movement Ecology
Volume
4
Pages
1-19
Publisher
BioMed Central
Description
Background
Geolocators are useful for tracking movements of long-distance migrants, but potential negative effects on birds have not been well studied. We tested for effects of geolocators (0.8–2.0 g total, representing 0.1–3.9 % of mean body mass) on 16 species of migratory shorebirds, including five species with 2–4 subspecies each for a total of 23 study taxa. Study species spanned a range of body sizes (26–1091 g) and eight genera, and were tagged at 23 breeding and eight nonbreeding sites. We compared breeding performance and return rates of birds with geolocators to control groups while controlling for potential confounding variables.
Results
We detected negative effects of tags for three small-bodied species. Geolocators reduced annual return rates for two of 23 taxa: by 63 % for semipalmated sandpipers and by 43 % for the arcticola …
Scholar articles
EL Weiser, RB Lanctot, SC Brown, JA Alves, PF Battley… - Movement Ecology, 2016