Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Repeated, Long-Distance Migrations by a Philopatric Predator Targeting Highly Contrasting Ecosystems
ResearcherID
G-4080-2013
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Scientific Reports
ISSN
2045-2322
Publication Date
6-9-2015
Keywords
Animal migration, Behavioural ecology, Ecosystem ecology
Abstract
Long-distance movements of animals are an important driver of population spatial dynamics and determine the extent of overlap with area-focused human activities, such as fishing. Despite global concerns of declining shark populations, a major limitation in assessments of population trends or spatial management options is the lack of information on their long-term migratory behaviour. For a large marine predator, the tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier, we show from individuals satellitetracked for multiple years (up to 1101 days) that adult males undertake annually repeated, roundtrip migrations of over 7,500km in the northwest Atlantic. Notably, these migrations occurred between the highly disparate ecosystems of Caribbean coral reef regions in winter and high latitude oceanic areas in summer, with strong, repeated philopatry to specific overwintering insular habitat. Partial migration also occurred, with smaller, immature individuals displaying reduced migration propensity. Foraging may be a putative motivation for these oceanic migrations, with summer behaviour showing higher path tortuosity at the oceanic range extremes. The predictable migratory patterns and use of highly divergent ecosystems shown by male tiger sharks appear broadly similar to migrations seen in birds, reptiles and mammals, and highlight opportunities for dynamic spatial management and conservation measures of highly mobile sharks.
DOI
10.1038/srep11202
Volume
5
Issue
11202
First Page
1
Last Page
11
Additional Comments
Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia grant #: PTDC/MAR/100345/2008; FCT grant #: SFRH/BD/68717/2010; FCT Investigator Fellowship #: IF/01611/2013
NSUWorks Citation
James S. E. Lea, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Nuno Queiroz, Neil Burnie, Choy Aming, Lara L. Sousa, Gonzalo R. Mucientes, Nicolas E. Humphries, Guy Harvey, David W. Sims, and Mahmood S. Shivji. 2015. Repeated, Long-Distance Migrations by a Philopatric Predator Targeting Highly Contrasting Ecosystems .Scientific Reports , (11202) : 1 -11. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/558.
Comments
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