학술논문

Early life adversity increases foraging and information gathering in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris
Document Type
Academic Journal
Source
Animal Behaviour. Nov, 2015, Vol. 109, p123, 10 p.
Subject
Birds
Neurosciences
Starlings
Starvation
Zoology and wildlife conservation
Language
English
ISSN
0003-3472
Abstract
To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.08.009 Byline: Clare Andrews, Jeremie Viviani, Emily Egan, Thomas Bedford, Ben Brilot, Daniel Nettle, Melissa Bateson Abstract: Animals can insure themselves against the risk of starvation associated with unpredictable food availability by storing energy reserves or gathering information about alternative food sources. The former strategy carries costs in terms of mass-dependent predation risk, while the latter trades off against foraging for food; both trade-offs may be influenced by an individual's developmental history. Here, we consider a possible role of early developmental experience in inducing different mass regulation and foraging strategies in European starlings. We measured the body mass, body condition, foraging effort, food consumption and contrafreeloading (foraging for food hidden in sand when equivalent food is freely available) of adult birds ([greater than or equal to]10 months old) that had previously undergone a subtle early life manipulation of food competition (cross-fostering into the highest or lowest ranks in the brood size hierarchy when 2-12 days of age). We found that developmentally disadvantaged birds were fatter in adulthood and differed in foraging behaviour compared with their advantaged siblings. Disadvantaged birds were hyperphagic compared with advantaged birds, but only following a period of food deprivation, and also spent more time contrafreeloading. Advantaged birds experienced a trade-off between foraging success and time spent contrafreeloading, whereas disadvantaged birds faced no such trade-off, owing to their greater foraging efficiency. Thus, developmentally disadvantaged birds appeared to retain a phenotypic memory of increased nestling food competition, employing both energy storage and information-gathering insurance strategies to a greater extent than their advantaged siblings. Our results suggest that subtle early life disadvantage in the form of psychosocial stress and/or food insecurity can leave a lasting legacy on foraging behaviour and mass regulation even in the absence of food insufficiency during development or adulthood. Author Affiliation: (a) Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Neuroscience and Newcastle University Institute of Ageing, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. (b) Departement de Biologie, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Universite de Lyon, Lyon, France (c) School of Biological Sciences, Plymouth University, Plymouth, U.K. Article History: Received 1 May 2015; Revised 2 June 2015; Accepted 22 July 2015 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: 15-00365R