#thegrackleproject — Public Fediverse posts

Great-tailed grackles in a #population toward the northern edge of their #range (Sacramento/Woodland, California) were less #related to each other, which means that they #dispersed farther from where they hatched 🐣 than grackles in a population nearer the center of their range (Tempe, Arizona).

In particular, females in Arizona stay closer to home 🏡 than males, while females in California disperse farther away from home ✈️ like the males do. To keep pushing the edge of the geographic range further, both males and females must be present so they can breed in the new areas.

Now we know that there are 2 things that are different about the grackles on the edge: they are more #persistent and they disperse farther from where they hatched (especially the females)

Thanks to @DieterLukas for leading this article on grackle genetics and dispersal! #TheGrackleProject

📰 Press release: https://www.mpg.de/25179774/0811-evan-exploration-and-dispersal-150495-x
📎 Article: https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.591

🪧 2 new articles from #TheGrackleProject!

🔍 Grackles who were #trained to be more #flexible were more #exploratory after the training than untrained grackles. This indicates that the more an individual investigates a novel object, the more it can learn and adapt its #behavior accordingly

✈️ Grackles in an edge #population disperse farther than those in a more central population. This suggests that the rapid geographic range expansion of great-tailed grackles is associated with individuals differentially expressing #dispersal behaviors

🗺️ These results suggest that flexibility, exploration, and dispersal are key traits involved in this species’ rapid expansion into new areas

💪 They started as #RegisteredReports @ #PCIEcology @PeerCommunityIn years ago! After lots of hard work from many collaborators (including @DieterLukas) they are now at the #diamondOA @PeerCommunityJournal 🎉

📰 Press release: https://www.mpg.de/25179774/0811-evan-exploration-and-dispersal-150495-x
📎 Articles: https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.593 and https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.591