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McKinnon RA, Hedlin E, Hawkshaw K, Mathot KJ. Food supplementing peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus tundrius) nests increase reproductive success with no change in mean parental provisioning rate. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:240576. [PMID: 39323558 PMCID: PMC11421900 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.240576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2024] [Revised: 06/26/2024] [Accepted: 08/27/2024] [Indexed: 09/27/2024]
Abstract
Parents are expected to exhibit intermediate levels of investment in parental care that reflect the trade-off between current versus future reproduction. Providing parents with supplemental food may allow for increased care to the current brood (additive model), re-allocation of parental effort to other behaviours such as self-maintenance (substitution model), or may provide parents with a buffer against provisioning shortfalls (insurance model). We investigated the impact of parental food supplementation on provisioning behaviour and breeding success in Arctic-breeding peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus tundrius) over five successive breeding seasons (2013-2017). We found that supplemental feeding had no impact on mean provisioning rates, yet resulted in increased nestling survival probability, increased nestling body mass and decreased variance in nestling body mass and provisioning rates. These results are consistent with parents adopting a hybrid of the additive and substitution models. We suggest that food supplementation enables increased investment in other forms of parental care (e.g. nest defence, brooding) without altering mean provisioning rates. The lack of observed effects on mean provisioning rates, coupled with increased survival and body mass of offspring, suggests a potential reallocation of parental effort. The findings contribute to understanding the responses of peregrine falcons to food supplementation, highlighting the need for future studies to explore broader environmental contexts and potential long-term effects on parental survival and future reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebekah A McKinnon
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
- Nunavut Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
| | - Erik Hedlin
- Nunavut Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, GSB 751, Edmonton, AB T6G 0N4, Canada
| | - Kevin Hawkshaw
- Nunavut Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, GSB 751, Edmonton, AB T6G 0N4, Canada
| | - Kimberley J Mathot
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
- Department of Biological Sciences, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
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Morosinotto C, Bensch S, Tarka M, Karell P. Heritability and parental effects in telomere length in a color polymorphic long-lived bird. Physiol Biochem Zool 2022; 95:350-364. [DOI: 10.1086/720161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Avilés JM, Cruz-Miralles Á, Parejo D. Moonlight influence on quality of nestlings of scops owls depends on paternal coloration. Behav Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Lunar phases might favor the maintenance of color polymorphism via disruptive selection if the different color variants performed differently in terms of prey capture under different moonlight levels. Moonlight, however, may affect prey capture as a side effect of its influence on prey behavior. Here we combine data of parental provisioning and quality of owlets with one ex-situ study of grasshopper activity to test whether Eurasian scops owls (Otus scops) with different plumage color and their prey are differently affected by moonlight. Food provisioning increased from new- to full-moon. However, the effect of moonlight on owlet mass gain and immune response depended on paternal coloration. On the one hand, body mass gain of nestlings of the greyest fathers increased from nights with new- to full-moon, whereas it did not change with moonlight for the brownest fathers. On the other hand, PHA response of nestlings of the brownest fathers increased with high moonlight levels during the first week of life, whereas it did not change with moonlight levels for the greyest fathers. Grasshoppers were more active at new moon than at full or waning moon. Our study provides supporting evidence that moonlight influences the behavior of both scops owls and its prey and suggests that fluctuations in environmental conditions can modulate the advantages of morphs. These results are important because they provide a general insight into a little appreciated mechanism for the maintenance of color polymorphism in natural populations based on the interactive effect of different environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesús M Avilés
- Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, EEZA-CSIC, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería E-04001, España
- Unidad Asociada (UNEX-CSIC): Ecología en el Antropoceno, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz E-06006, España
| | - Ángel Cruz-Miralles
- Departamento de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz E-04001, España
| | - Deseada Parejo
- Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, EEZA-CSIC, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería E-04001, España
- Departamento de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz E-04001, España
- Unidad Asociada (UNEX-CSIC): Ecología en el Antropoceno, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz E-06006, España
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Nebel C, Sumasgutner P, Rodseth E, Ingle RA, Childs DZ, Curtis‐Scott O, Amar A. Multigenerational pedigree analysis of wild individually marked black sparrowhawks suggests that dark plumage coloration is a dominant autosomal trait. J Zool (1987) 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- C. Nebel
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DSI‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
- Department of Biology University of Turku Turku Finland
| | - P. Sumasgutner
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DSI‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
- Department of Behavioral & Cognitive Biology Konrad Lorenz Research Centre (KLF) Core Facility for Behaviour and Cognition University of Vienna Vienna Austria
| | - E. Rodseth
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
| | - R. A. Ingle
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
| | - D. Z. Childs
- School of Biosciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - O. Curtis‐Scott
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
| | - A. Amar
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DSI‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa
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Nebel C, Amar A, Hegemann A, Isaksson C, Sumasgutner P. Parental morph combination does not influence innate immune function in nestlings of a colour-polymorphic African raptor. Sci Rep 2021; 11:11053. [PMID: 34040034 PMCID: PMC8155141 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-90291-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Conditions experienced during early life can have long-term individual consequences by influencing dispersal, survival, recruitment and productivity. Resource allocation during development can have strong carry-over effects onto these key parameters and is directly determined by the quality of parental care. In the black sparrowhawk (Accipiter melanoleucus), a colour-polymorphic raptor, parental morphs influence nestling somatic growth and survival, with pairs consisting of different colour morphs ('mixed-morph pairs') producing offspring with lower body mass indices, but higher local apparent survival rates. Resource allocation theory could explain this relationship, with nestlings of mixed-morph pairs trading off a more effective innate immune system against somatic growth. We quantified several innate immune parameters of nestlings (hemagglutination, hemolysis, bacteria-killing capacity and haptoglobin concentration) and triggered an immune response by injecting lipopolysaccharides. Although we found that nestlings with lower body mass index had higher local survival rates, we found no support for the proposed hypothesis: neither baseline immune function nor the induced immune response of nestlings was associated with parental morph combination. Our results suggest that these immune parameters are unlikely to be involved in providing a selective advantage for the different colour morphs' offspring, and thus innate immunity does not appear to be traded off against a greater allocation of resources to somatic growth. Alternative hypotheses explaining the mechanism of a low nestling body mass index leading to subsequent higher local survival could be related to the post-fledgling dependency period or differences in dispersal patterns for the offspring from different morph combinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carina Nebel
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
| | - Arjun Amar
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Arne Hegemann
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | | | - Petra Sumasgutner
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Konrad Lorenz Research Centre (KLF), Core Facility for Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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