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 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 over-winter 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.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2021 |
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Title | Partial migration and spawning movements of humpback chub in the Little Colorado River are better understood using data from autonomous PIT tag antennas |
DOI | 10.1139/cjfas-2020-0291 |
Authors | Maria C. Dzul, William Louis Kendall, Charles Yackulic, Dana L. Winkelman, David Randall Van Haverbeke, Michael D. Yard |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
Index ID | 70219505 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Southwest Biological Science Center |