Understanding the elements that shape the ontogeny of migratory behaviour

Long-distance migrations are full of choices. Migrating animals have to make a plethora of decisions about routes, timings, stopovers and destinations, each of which can influence their development and breeding success. In such cases, relying only on innate information is highly risky, and so, many species also use social information and personal experience to make these long journeys. For my PhD, I want to study how innate knowledge, social information and personal experience influence migratory decisions in the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). I will translocate juvenile and adult storks into populations with social environments that are in conflict with their innate knowledge and personal experiences and explore how this affects their migratory strategies. In this week’s talk, I will discuss how the white stork provides a unique opportunity to study migratory decision-making through experimental displacement.