Partial migration and spawning movements of humpback chub in the Little Colorado River are better understood using data from autonomous PIT tag antennas

Choosing whether or not to migrate is an important life history decision for many fishes. Here we combine data from physical captures and detections on autonomous passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag antennas to study migration in an endangered fish, the humpback chub (Gila cypha). We develop hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences 2021-08, Vol.78 (8), p.1057-1072
Main Authors: Dzul, Maria Christina, Kendall, William Louis, Yackulic, Charles Brandon, Winkelman, Dana L, Van Haverbeke, David Randall, Yard, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Demographics
Endangered animals
Endangered species
Fish
Fish migration
Fishes
Gila cypha
Life history
Males
Markov analysis
Migration
Rivers
Spawning
Survival
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Summary:Choosing whether or not to migrate is an important life history decision for many fishes. Here we combine data from physical captures and detections on autonomous passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag antennas to study migration in an endangered fish, the humpback chub (Gila cypha). We develop hidden Markov mark–recapture models with and without antenna detections and find that the model fit without antenna detections misses a large proportion of fish and underestimates migration and survival probabilities. We then assess survival and growth differences associated with life history strategy and migration for different demographic groups (small male, small female, large male, large female). We find large differences in survival according to life history strategy, where residents had much lower overwinter survival than migrants. However, within the migratory life history strategy, survival and growth were similar for active migrants and skipped migrants for all demographic groups. We discuss some common challenges to incorporating detections from autonomous antennas into population models and demonstrate how these data can provide insight about fish movement and life history strategies.
ISSN:0706-652X
1205-7533
DOI:10.1139/cjfas-2020-0291