Symposium number: 22

Title: THE PROCESS OF NATAL RECRUITMENT IN LONG-LIVED BIRDS

Principal organizer: Peter H. Becker
Institut für Vogelforschung "Vogelwarte Helgoland", An der Vogelwarte 21, D-26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
email: peter.becker@ifv.terramare.de

Second organizer: Stuart Bradley
School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, Murdoch 6150, Western Australia

First keynote speaker: Daniel Oro
Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados (CSIC-UIB), Miquel Marques 21, 07190 Esporles, Mallorca, Spain
Title of first keynote paper: The role of recruitment in long-lived bird populations: the importance of a reliable estimation

Second keynote speaker: Peter H. Becker
Institut für Vogelforschung "Vogelwarte Helgoland", An der Vogelwarte 21, D-26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Title of second keynote paper: The role of intrinsic factors for the recruitment process in long-lived birds

Contributed talks

Symposium description: Recruitment into a breeding population is one of the most important steps during life. Yet this complex process is poorly studied and understood, despite its enormous consequences for the reproductive career of long lived birds and for population growth. Recently, however, innovative concepts and analytical methods have shed new light on it.
This symposium will focus on natal recruitment, with the aim of not only providing an overview of recent approaches and findings but also of addressing questions still open. We shall approach recruitment from two perspectives. The first is extrinsic and concerns the environment and general population. Here recruitment might be expected to be influenced by such determinants as dispersal, survival and state of cohorts, population size and growth, nesting density, availability of mates, sex ratio, foraging and breeding conditions and reproductive success. The second approach is intrinsic, and concerns the individual. Here such factors as age, sex, individual quality, arrival date, and length of the prospecting period affect the probability of recruitment and reproductive success in the initial years of a breeding career. The point will be made that understanding the interplay of these factors in attracting young birds to breeding sites, and in determining the age of recruitment, has important consequences for evolutionary and population ecology and for conservation.

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