A novel strategy to escape a poor habitat: red-necked grebes transfer flightless young to other ponds

Animals confronted with the threat of the death of their offspring may exhibit unusual and risk-prone behaviours. Grebes (Podicipediformes) are water birds which cannot effectively walk, thus unfledged young are assumed to be unable to depart from their natal ponds by land. We provide evidence that red-necked grebes Podiceps grisegena, breeding on ponds with scarce food resources, transferred their flightless young (2-4 weeks old) to other, unconnected ponds by land or air. Although a large proportion of breeding grebes in the study area nested on food-poor fish ponds acting as ecological traps, where they suffered significant brood losses, brood movements to new ponds accounted for only 3.3% of such breeding attempts. The infrequency of this strategy may be explained by the lack of suitable territories in close proximity and the high risk of predation or fatal injury. The means of chick transfer remains unclear; the chicks may have followed or been carried by parents shuffling across the pond levees; alternatively, parents may have carried the young on their backs in flight. Our findings indicate that red-necked grebes assess the current level of resources available for chicks and may adopt novel and risky strategies to escape total brood failure.