Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40403118›Full record

ArticlePloS one2025

Fidelity to territory and mate and the causes and consequences of breeding dispersal in American goshawk (Astur atricapillus).

Richard T Reynolds, Shannon L Kay, Jeffrey S Lambert, Martha Ellis

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Richard T ReynoldsUnited States of America Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5193-786X
Shannon L KayUnited States of America Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
Jeffrey S LambertUnited States of America Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
Martha EllisMontana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Using mark-resight data, we investigated fidelity to territory and mate as well as breeding dispersal rates and the causes and consequences of breeding dispersal in a 20-year study of American goshawks (Astur atricapillus) in Arizona, USA. Generalized Additive Mixed Models were used to identify the relative contributions of four prominent explanatory variables (eggs laid, nest failed, nest successful, mate loss) and 21 individual and environmental variables in a machine learning Conditional Inference Forest to predict breeding dispersal. Ninety-five percent of males and 92% of females exhibited lifetime territory fidelity and 97% exhibited lifetime mate fidelity. Mate loss alone (to divorce, possible emigration or death) made the biggest difference in the predicted probability of dispersal (0.11 with mate loss, 0.005 with mate retention). Yet, in 80% of mate losses a hawk stayed on its territory to eventually nest with a new mate. Territory fidelity was highest when the mate was retained in the next breeding and the pair's previous attempt produced fledglings. All males and 86% of females that dispersed to a territory in our study area moved no farther than to a 3rd-order neighboring territory (crossed 2 territories). Despite equivocal evidence of dispersal to territories more frequently occupied by egg-layers, there was otherwise little evidence that hawks on average dispersed to better territories. On average reproduction did not improve post-dispersal and dispersers did not move to territories with greater total (all monitored yrs) reproduction. Goshawks losing their mates appeared to use a home-based mate searching that minimized loss of a familiar territory by waiting on their territory for a new mate and prospecting nearby territories for unpaired mates. The small sample of nearby prospected territories, combined with fortuitous occurrences of unpaired mates, resulted in random (with respect to quality) selections of territories by dispersers.

Indexed as

Animal DistributionReproductionSexual Behavior, AnimalTerritorialityAnimalsArizonaBreedingFemaleMaleNesting Behavior

Identifiers

PMID40403118
PMCPMC12097718

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.