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- Title
Context-dependent effects of an experimental increase of hunger level in house sparrow nestlings.
- Authors
Ruiz-Castellano, Cristina; Soler, Manuel; Rösler, Anja; Martín-Gálvez, David; Soler, Juan
- Abstract
Exploring the links between parental supply and nestling demands and between nestling demand and food supply is of central importance for understanding the evolution of parent-offspring communication. It has been suggested that optimal food supply by parents and begging effort of nestlings are context dependent, and we here test some predictions of this hypothesis. House sparrow ( Passer domesticus) nestlings were experimentally fed with a pharmacological appetitive stimulant (cyproheptadine) that increases nestling demands, and explore its effect on nestling growth (i.e. body mass and tarsus length), which can be considered as the net payoff of inflated and costly offspring demand. As assumed by the experimental protocol, nestlings with an exaggerated demand were preferentially fed by parents. In accordance with the hypothesis, net benefits in terms of growth were mainly detected in first breeding attempt of parents that successfully reared three broods. Because costs associated with parental feeding should be lower for first breeding attempts and for parents of higher phenotypic quality (those able to successfully rear three clutches), our results provide to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence supporting a dynamic role of costs of food supply affecting net payoff of offspring demands, which may help to understand the mechanisms allowing the evolutionary equilibrium between intensities of offspring begging and parental provisioning. Significance statement: Both feeding and begging for food are costly activities for offspring and parents respectively. Rewards of such behaviours in terms of food receiving and reproductive success should vary depending on ecological conditions (i.e. food availability for offspring and physical condition of parents). Here we pharmacologically exaggerated appetitive of house sparrows ( Passer domesticus) nestlings and explore its effect on parental behaviour and on nestling growth (i.e. body mass and tarsus length). The expected benefits were mainly detected for first breeding attempts and only in nests of adults that were able to rear two more broods, that is, when costs of feeding the offspring by adults are lower. Our results provide to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence supporting dynamic outcomes of offspring demands and parental provisioning, which is essential for understanding the evolution of parent-offspring communication.
- Subjects
ENGLISH sparrow; BABY birds; FOOD supply; CYPROHEPTADINE; PARENTAL behavior in animals
- Publication
Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 2016, Vol 70, Issue 6, p939
- ISSN
0340-5443
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00265-016-2115-1