Using genetic markers to unravel the origin of birds converging towards pre-migratory sites

Abstract

Identifying patterns of individual movements in spatial and temporal scales can provide valuable insight into the structure of populations and the dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Especially for migrating birds, that can face a variety of unfavorable conditions along their journey, resolving movements of individuals across their annual cycle is necessary in order to design better targeted conservation strategies. Here, we studied the movements of a small migratory falcon, the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), by genetically assigning feathers from individuals of unknown origin that concentrate in large roosts during the pre-migratory period. Our findings suggest that birds from multiple breeding populations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean region move towards two pre-migratory sites in the Balkans, some of them detouring greatly from their expected flyways, travelling more than 500 km to reach these sites and prepare for the post-nuptial migration. By identifying the origin of individuals using the pre-migratory sites, not only we provide a better understanding of the possible impact of local threats at these sites on multiple breeding populations but also inform the design of effective conservation actions for the species.

Low genetic diversity and shallow population structure in the endangered vulture, Gyps coprotheres

“…For vultures, and many other raptors, direct estimates of abundance, natal philopatry and dispersal are particularly challenging because individuals are not only difficult to capture and mark, but re-capture rates are also very low 13–15 . Genetic methods can be valuable tools to evaluate genetic diversity, effective population size and gene flow among fragmented populations and have shown to be useful in highly mobile species 15–17 .…”

On the Trail of Spatial Patterns of Genetic Variation

“…These are the cases, for example, of bgc (Gompert & Buerkle, 2012), aimed at detecting genomic regions involved in cline emergence, and also of HZAR (Derryberry et al, 2014), which requires prior knowledge of the gradient orientation to fit the results to a cline model. GenoCline has been already used, for example, to determine the geographic direction of a frequency gradient for the human MAPT*H2 haplotype in western Eurasia (Alfonso-Sánchez et al, 2018) or to study the movements of a small migratory falcon, the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), to unravel the origin of birds converging to premigratory sites (Bounas et al, 2018).…”

Genetic diversity of the Common Black Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) population in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, based on microsatellite markers

“…The development of genetic molecular tools is considered crucial for analyzing genetic diversity and to inform species management and conservation strategies. For example, genetic markers have been used to define the taxonomic boundaries of species, subspecies, and populations that require conservation attention (Haig et al, 2011), determine population structure and gene flow (Funk et al, 2007), and discern the temporal and spatial movement of migratory birds and its implications for population management (Bounas et al, 2018). Genetic data have also been used to evaluate demographic, behavioral, and ecological aspects important to design management strategies, such as the relatedness among individuals in a population (e.g., Müller et al, 2001), philopatry (Rudnick et al, 2005), extra-pair paternity and genetic mating system (Griffith et al, 2002;Kraukauer, 2008), and to measure the impact of anthropogenic disturbance and climate change on wildlife (Gebhardt et al, 2009;Martínez-Cruz et al, 2004).…”