Causes of differential migration distance: Test of seven mechanistic hypotheses in an arctic raptor

Exploring the causes of differential migration, or variation in migration distance, has increased our understanding of the remarkable variation in migratory behavior exhibited by birds more generally. However, considerable uncertainty exists regarding the mechanisms underlying differential migration distance in birds, despite it being a common phenomenon. We leveraged migration distances from GPS-tracked rough-legged hawk, Buteo lagopus, to test predictions deduced from seven hypotheses proposed to explain the underlying cause(s) of differential migration distance. We provide the first empirical evidence in support of a social dominance food maximization hypothesis whereby dominant individuals migrate to higher quality nonbreeding locations with respect to foraging efficiency regardless of migration distance. Within females, larger, more dominant individuals migrated intermediate distances while smaller, subordinate individuals migrated both longer and shorter distances. We also fo..., , # Causes of differential migration distance: Test of seven mechanistic hypotheses in an arctic raptor

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccqz](10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccqz)

## Description of the data and file structure

We leveraged migration distances from GPS-tracked rough-legged hawks, *Buteo lagopus,* to test predictions deduced from seven hypotheses proposed to explain the underlying cause(s) of differential migration distance.

### Files and variables

#### File: 2024-09-19_RLHA_Differential-Migration.csv

**Description:** see R scripts for use. 'NA' cells refers to missing data (either missing or not included because not applicable to the analyses).

##### Variables

* tagid: bird ID number
* season: migration season
* sex: sex of the bird
* agemigr: minimum age at time of migration
* age3: age class (1-4), detailed in methods.
* winterday: winter day of capture
* migrdistance: migration distance (km)
* dist_pred: Was migration distance predicted (inferred)? Y/N
* dist_remove: Should ...,