DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cvdncjtbx
title: Data from: Translocation experiment of taiga bean geese Anser fabalis provides evidence for oblique social learning of moult migration

description: While there is ample evidence supporting genetic control of migratory
 behaviour in short-lived passerines, long-lived social species have been
 assumed to rely solely on cultural inheritance of migratory routes.
 Evidence from experimental studies supporting this idea is scarce. We
 tested whether the moult migration in taiga bean geese Anser fabalis has
 an inherited component or whether the birds need oblique social learning
 (where knowledge on migration is transferred from any experienced
 individual to any naïve individual conspecific) to carry out this journey.
 In many waterfowl species, non-breeders and failed breeders migrate to
 remote places for wing moult while successful breeders stay at the
 breeding grounds and moult with their chicks. We translocated one-year-old
 taiga bean geese before their first moult migration to sites outside of
 the breeding range to examine whether they display innate moult migration
 behaviour without experienced conspecifics or not. The birds were equipped
 with GPS-transmitters and released in randomly assigned groups of two.
 Wild control one-year-old birds were released immediately after capture
 with other non-breeding geese, while a procedural control group consisting
 of older birds was held in captivity until released at the same time with
 the translocated one-year-old birds but in the place where they were
 captured. Most translocated birds found conspecifics and either joined
 locally moulting breeders or followed experienced birds to moulting sites
 in Russia. Two of the translocated birds did not find other bean geese and
 settled to moult together in SW Finland. The wild control birds
 moult-migrated as expected, while only one of the procedural control birds
 moult-migrated to Russia and the remaining three stayed with locally
 moulting breeders in Finland. Our results support the idea that moult
 migration in geese is culturally inherited, highlighting the importance of
 the non-relative, experienced adult individuals have in maintaining
 population-specific behaviours.
description: # GPS data from manuscript: "Translocation experiment of taiga bean
 geese Anser fabalis provides evidence for oblique social learning of moult
 migration." ## Description of the data and file structure The table
 presents gps positions obtained from taga bean geese tagged in Finland in
 2023. The data cover period from the day of tagging till the 31st of
 December 2023.  Column "Neck_band" is the alphanumeric code
 written on the neck band of each tracked bird. Column
 "UTC_datetime" has the date and time information of when each
 position has been recorded. Column "Longitude" specifies the
 recorded positon of the bird in °E and column "Latitude"
 position in °E, both in WGS84 decimal system. Cells with values
 "0" mean that the transmitter attempted but failed to record the
 Latitude and/or Longitude at the given timestamp. Transmitters used
 are OrniTrack-44 solar-powered GPS-GSM neck collars (Ornitela UAB)
 weighing ~45 g. Capturing, and marking of birds was done by the approval
 of Finnish Wildlife Agency (licence number 2023-1-000-28099-6).