Studies of the effects of transmitters on wildlife often focus on survival. However, sublethal behavioral changes resulting from radio-marking have the potential to affect inferences from telemetry data and may vary based on individual and environmental characteristics. We used a long-term, multi-species tracking study of sea ducks to assess behavioral patterns at multiple temporal scales following implantation of intracoelomic satellite transmitters. We applied state-space models to assess short-term behavioral patterns in 476 individuals with implanted satellite transmitters, as well as comparing breeding site attendance and migratory phenology across multiple years after capture. In the short term, our results suggest an increase in dispersive behavior immediately following capture and transmitter implantation; however, behavior returned to seasonally average patterns within ~5 days after release. Over multiple years, we found that breeding site attendance by both males and females was depressed during the first breeding season after radio-marking relative to subsequent years, with larger relative decreases in breeding site attendance among males than females. We also found that spring and breeding migrations occurred later in the first year after radio-marking than in subsequent years. Across all behavioral effects, the severity of behavioral change often varied by species, sex, age, and capture season. We conclude that, although individuals appear to adjust relatively quickly (i.e. within 1 week) to implanted satellite transmitters, changes in breeding phenology may occur over the longer term and should be considered when analyzing and reporting telemetry data.

中文翻译：

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植入的卫星发射机会在短期和长期范围内影响海鸭的运动方式

对发射机对野生生物的影响的研究通常侧重于生存。但是，由无线电标记引起的亚致死行为改变可能会影响遥测数据的推断，并且可能会因个人和环境特征而异。我们使用了长期，多物种的海鸭跟踪研究，以评估植入腔内卫星发射器后在多个时间尺度上的行为模式。我们应用状态空间模型评估了476个植入卫星发射器的个体的短期行为模式，并比较了捕获后多年内的繁殖地点出勤率和迁徙物候。在短期内，我们的结果表明捕获和发射体植入后，分散行为立即增加；然而，行为在发布后约5天内恢复到季节性平均模式。多年来，我们发现，在进行放射性标记后的第一个繁殖季节，相对于随后的几年，雄性和雌性的繁殖场所出勤率均受到抑制，男性的繁殖场所出勤率相对降低的幅度要大于雌性。我们还发现，春季和育种的迁移发生在无线电标记后的第一年晚于随后的几年。在所有行为影响中，行为改变的严重性通常随物种，性别，年龄和捕获季节而变化。我们得出的结论是，尽管个体似乎相对较快地（即在1周内）适应了植入的卫星发射机，但育种物候的变化可能会长期发生，因此在分析和报告遥测数据时应予以考虑。