scholarly journals No evidence for kin recognition in a passerine bird

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Lattore ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
Mireia Plaza ◽  
Julia Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Kin Discrimination ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Evolutionary Advantage

AbstractTheory predicts that individuals behave altruistically towards their relatives. Hence, some form of kin recognition is useful for individuals to optimize their behaviour. In species displaying bi-parental care and subject to extra-pair matings, kin recognition theoretically allows cuckolded fathers to reduce their parental investment, and thus optimize their fitness, but whether this is possible remains unclear in birds. This study investigates the ability of male sparrows to recognize their own chicks, using a large cross-foster experiment, parental care as an indicator and House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) as a model organism. We cross-fostered chicks after hatching, and then expected that fathers would show a decrease in their parental efforts when tending to a clutch of unrelated offspring. However, there was no significant effect of relatedness on provisioning rates. This suggests that sparrows may not be capable of kin recognition, or at least do not display kin discrimination despite its apparent evolutionary advantage.

scholarly journals Hormone levels predict individual differences in reproductive success in a passerine bird

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1717) ◽  
pp. 2537-2545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Q. Ouyang ◽  
Peter J. Sharp ◽  
Alistair Dawson ◽  
Michael Quetting ◽  
Michaela Hau
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Hormonal Regulation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Reproductive Traits ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Baseline Corticosterone ◽  
Reproductive Phases

Hormones mediate major physiological and behavioural components of the reproductive phenotype of individuals. To understand basic evolutionary processes in the hormonal regulation of reproductive traits, we need to know whether, and during which reproductive phases, individual variation in hormone concentrations relates to fitness in natural populations. We related circulating concentrations of prolactin and corticosterone to parental behaviour and reproductive success during both the pre-breeding and the chick-rearing stages in both individuals of pairs of free-living house sparrows, Passer domesticus . Prolactin and baseline corticosterone concentrations in pre-breeding females, and prolactin concentrations in pre-breeding males, predicted total number of fledglings. When the strong effect of lay date on total fledgling number was corrected for, only pre-breeding baseline corticosterone, but not prolactin, was negatively correlated with the reproductive success of females. During the breeding season, nestling provisioning rates of both sexes were negatively correlated with stress-induced corticosterone levels. Lastly, individuals of both sexes with low baseline corticosterone before and high baseline corticosterone during breeding raised the most offspring, suggesting that either the plasticity of this trait contributes to reproductive success or that high parental effort leads to increased hormone concentrations. Thus hormone concentrations both before and during breeding, as well as their seasonal dynamics, predict reproductive success, suggesting that individual variation in absolute concentrations and in plasticity is functionally significant, and, if heritable, may be a target of selection.

Are parental care trade-offs in shorebirds driven by parental investment or sexual selection?

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 672-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. A. OLSON ◽  
T. J. WEBB ◽  
R. P. FRECKLETON ◽  
T. SZÉKELY
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Trade Offs

scholarly journals Non-breeding feather concentrations of testosterone, corticosterone and cortisol are associated with subsequent survival in wild house sparrows

2011 ◽  
Vol 279 (1733) ◽  
pp. 1560-1566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Koren ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
Kiran K. Soma ◽  
Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stress Hormones ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Darwinian Fitness ◽  
Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Subject ◽  
As Stress

Potential mechanistic mediators of Darwinian fitness, such as stress hormones or sex hormones, have been the focus of many studies. An inverse relationship between fitness and stress or sex hormone concentrations has been widely assumed, although empirical evidence is scarce. Feathers gradually accumulate hormones during their growth and provide a novel way to measure hormone concentrations integrated over time. Using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, we measured testosterone, corticosterone and cortisol in the feathers of house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) in a wild population which is the subject of a long-term study. Although corticosterone is considered the dominant avian glucocorticoid, we unambiguously identified cortisol in feathers. In addition, we found that feathers grown during the post-nuptial moult in autumn contained testosterone, corticosterone and cortisol levels that were significantly higher in birds that subsequently died over the following winter than in birds that survived. Thus, feather steroids are candidate prospective biomarkers to predict the future survival of individuals in the wild.

Breeding House Sparrows, Passer domesticus in Captivity

1973 ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Mitchell ◽  
Richard O. Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
In Captivity
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