Long distance migration occurs in a wide variety of taxa including birds, insects, fishes, mammals and reptiles. Here, we provide evidence for a new paradigm for the determinants of migration destination. As adults, sea turtles show fidelity to their natal nesting areas and then at the end of the breeding season may migrate to distant foraging sites. For a major rookery in the Mediterranean, we...

How will climate change affect species' reproduction and subsequent survival? In many egg-laying reptiles, the sex of offspring is determined by the temperature experienced during a critical period of embryonic development (temperature-dependent sex determination, TSD). Increasing air temperatures are likely to skew offspring sex ratios in the absence of evolutionary or plastic adaptation, henc...

Protection Island, Washington, is one of the most important nesting sites for Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) in the Puget Sound area. Changes in the numbers and distribution of nests in a Glaucous-winged Gull colony on Violet Point, Protection Island, were tracked from 1980 to 2010. The colony grew steadily until the early 1990s, then declined to about half its former level. The main...

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a threatened seabird that nests in old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Despite concern for this species, little has been published on murrelet nesting habitat in the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) region. Here we present the first comprehensive study of marbled murrelet nesting characteristics in redwood forests based on confirme...

Female green turtles exhibit strong nest-site fidelity as adults, but whether the nesting beach is the natal site is not known. Under the natal homing hypothesis, females return to their natal beach to nest, whereas under the social facilitation model, virgin females follow experienced breeders to nesting beaches and after a "favorable" nesting experience, fix on that site for future nestings. ...

The 65th Medical Brigade and Public Health Command District-Korea, in collaboration with the Migratory Bird Research Center, National Park Research Institute, conducted migratory bird tick surveillance at Sogugul and Gaerin Islands (small rocky bird nesting sites), Jeollanam-do (Province), Republic of Korea (ROK), on 30 July and 1 August 2009. Breeding seabirds captured by hands in their nestin...

We compared the density of snags, snags with cavities, and cavity-nesting bird use at two sites in northern California: Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest, a site with large trees and large snags because of protection from logging, contrasted with the Goosenest Adaptive Management Area, where a century of logging left this forest with few large trees and snags. Indeed, there was a threefold di...

This paper reports on a 20-month study of chimpanzee nesting patterns in Issa, Ugalla, western Tanzania. Ugalla is one of the driest, most open, and seasonal habitats where chimpanzees are found. The methods used were ethoarchaeological, as the chimpanzees were not habituated and behavioural observations were rare. Systematic data on the spatial and temporal distribution of nests are presented....

The status of the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in the coastal zone of Belize was investigated from July 1996 to October 1997. Two hundred and sixty-two crocodiles were observed during spotlight surveys of 952.2 km of the survey route (0.28 crocodiles/km). Encounter rates were highest in the Turne€e Atoll, and low to moderate elsewhere. Most nesting occurs on elevated beach ridges in t...