Fecal sacs do not increase nest predation in a ground nester

Autor:	Enrique Rubio, Olivia Sanllorente, Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo, B. Irene Tieleman
Přispěvatelé:	Beukeboom lab, Tieleman lab
Jazyk:	angličtina
Rok vydání:	2018
Předmět:	0106 biological sciences ARTIFICIAL NESTS Zoology Context (language use) 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 010605 ornithology Predation REMOVAL Nest DISPERSAL RATES PLASTICITY Lullula arborea Nest concealment Feces Nest sanitation biology BIRDS LANDSCAPE biology.organism_classification Woodlark Attraction Altricial Nest predation hypothesis Biological dispersal Original Article Visual cues
Zdroj:	Journal of Ornithology Journal of Ornithology, 159(4), 985-990. SPRINGER
ISSN:	2193-7206 2193-7192 0021-8375
Popis:	Most altricial birds remove their nestlings' feces from the nest, but the evolutionary forces driving this behavior are poorly understood. A possible adaptive explanation for this could be that birds avoid the attraction of nest predators to their nests due to the visual or olfactory cues produced by feces (nest predation hypothesis). This hypothesis has received contrasting support indicating that additional experimental studies are needed, particularly with respect to the visual component of fecal sacs. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment manipulating the presence of fecal sacs on inactive Woodlark (Lullula arborea) nests. This ground nester has highly cryptic nests that are mainly depredated by visually oriented nest predators (i.e., corvids) in our study population, making it an excellent system to test for the nest predation hypothesis. Our results showed that the presence of fecal sacs in the nest does not seem to be an important factor explaining nest predation. Interestingly, the effect of nest concealment, the most important factor explaining nest predation in Woodlark nests, depended on whether the nest was depredated the previous year or not, supporting the importance of using different nesting sites between years. Our findings indicate that this important nest sanitation behavior is not likely motivated by nest predation and highlight the need to explore alternative selective pressures in this context.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::834cac68558b052c97c6f92222ee9241 http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6417374 Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text ve formátu PDF Plný text ve formátu HTML
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje	K zobrazení výsledku je třeba se přihlásit.