A gradual migratory divide determines not only the direction of migration but also migration strategy of a social migrant bird

Migratory divides separate populations of migratory animals, facilitating the evolution of intraspecific differences in migration strategies. Migration strategies are expected to be different for birds using different flyways and environments, but the knowledge regarding the impact of the flyway on individual migration strategies is scarce. By using satellite tracking and neckband resightings, we reveal the existence and structure of a gradual migratory divide between two European flyway populations of greylag geese Anser anser. Birds breeding at the far end of the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea coast use the Western Flyway; those breeding in the Gulf of Finland the Central Flyway and those breeding between these extremes scatter to the two flyways. By using Gaussian process modelling, we show that migration strategies differed between the flyways. The birds using Western Flyway migrated earlier in autumn, performed longer annual migration and made a clear stopover during migration, ..., The data is satellite tracking data collected at the University of Turku and at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (contact information: Tuomas Seimola, [e-mail]). The data has been subsetted by removing several variables (accelerometer, magnetometer measurements, etc.) and including only one location per hour. For the complete data, please contact Antti Piironen and Tuomas Seimola., , GENERAL INFORMATION

1\. Content:
This dataset contains data used in the following publication: Piironen, A. & Laaksonen, T. 2023: A gradual migratory divide determines not only the direction of migration but also migration strategy of a social migrant bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1528

2\. Author information for the data:
Name: Antti Piironen
Institution: University of Turku
Email: [e-mail], [e-mail]

Name: Toni Laaksonen
Institution: University of Turku
Email: [e-mail]

Name: Tuomas Seimola
Institution: Natural Resources Institute Finland
Email: [e-mail]

3\. Date of data collection: Years 2019\-2022

4\. Geographic location of data collection: Finland

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1\. Links to publications that cite or use the data:
Piironen, A. & Laaksonen, T. 2023: A gradual migratory divide determines not only the direction of migration but also
migration...