Effects of an introduced, novel prey on diet and reproduction in the diet-specialist European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-231
Author(s):  
T.D. Williams ◽  
A. Cornell ◽  
C. Gillespie ◽  
A. Hura ◽  
M. Serota
Keyword(s):  
Prey Item ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Sturnus Vulgaris ◽  
European Starling ◽  
Tarsus Length ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Diet Specialization ◽  
Specialized Diet

Diet specialization has important consequences for how individuals or species deal with environmental change that causes changes in availability of prey species. We took advantage of a “natural experiment” — establishment of a commercial insect farm — that introduced a novel prey item, black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758)), to the diet-specialist European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758). We investigated evidence for individual diet specialization (IDS) and the consequences of diet specialization and exploitation of novel prey on breeding productivity. In all 4 years of our study, tipulid larvae were the most common prey item. Soldier flies were not recorded in diets in 2013–2014; however, coincident with the establishment of the commercial insect farming operation, they comprised 22% and 30% of all prey items in the diets of European Starling females and males, respectively, in 2015. There was marked individual variation in use of soldier flies (4%–48% and 2%–70% in females and males, respectively), but we found little evidence of dichotomous IDS, i.e., where only some individuals have a specialized diet. We found no evidence for negative effects of use of soldier flies on breeding productivity: brood size at fledging and chick quality (mass, tarsus length) were independent of the number and proportion (%) of soldier flies returned to the nest.

Brood size and environmental conditions sex-specifically affect nestling immune response in the European starling Sturnus vulgaris

2005 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 060118052425002-???
Author(s):  
Eunice H. Chin ◽  
Oliver P. Love ◽  
Alison M. Clark ◽  
Tony D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Sturnus Vulgaris ◽  
European Starling

scholarly journals Sex-specific development of cell-mediated immunity under experimentally altered rearing conditions in blue tit nestlings

2006 ◽  
Vol 273 (1595) ◽  
pp. 1759-1764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dubiec ◽  
Mariusz Cichoń ◽  
Kinga Deptuch
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Tarsus Length ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Brood Size Manipulation ◽  
Rearing Conditions

In birds, poor rearing conditions usually have negative effects on T-cell-mediated immune response. However, earlier studies demonstrate that fitness-related traits such as body mass may show sex-specific patterns when subject to alteration of rearing conditions. Therefore, to investigate whether deterioration of rearing conditions influences the development of immune function differently in male and female nestlings, we performed brood size manipulation experiments on blue tit ( Parus caeruleus ) nestlings. To alter rearing conditions, some broods were increased by three nestlings soon after hatching, while other broods were left non-manipulated. Immune response was assessed as a hypersensitivity reaction to phytohaemagglutinin in 11-day-old nestlings. Additionally, we studied the consequences of brood size manipulation for fledgling body mass and tarsus length. The enlargement of brood size had different effects on the cellular immune responses of male and female nestlings, with males being more negatively affected than their female nest-mates. Sex-specific effects of poor rearing conditions were also recorded for tarsus length, such that tarsus growth was more retarded in female than in male nestlings. We discuss the effects of deterioration of rearing conditions on sex-specific development of cell-mediated immunity with respect to sexual dimorphism of size and developmental strategies in male and female nestlings.

scholarly journals Global change affects differently at local scales animal populations: why Starlings still expands to the south while other temperate species go to the north?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Rodriguez ◽  
Giuseppe La Gioia ◽  
Patricia Le Quilliec ◽  
Damien Fourcy ◽  
Philippe Clergeau
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Sturnus Vulgaris ◽  
European Starling ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
The World ◽  
Landscape Transformations

Global change, which regroups global warming, landscape transformations and other anthropic modifications of ecosystems, has effects on populations and communities and produces modifications in the expansion area of species. While some species disappear, other ones are beneficiated by the new conditions and some of them evolve in new adapted forms or leave their ancient distribution area. As climate change tends to increase the temperature in several regions of the world, some species have been seen to leave areas in equatorial regions in order to join colder areas either towards the north of the northern hemisphere or towards the south of the southern one. Many birds as have moved geographically in direction to the poles and in many cases they have anticipated their laying dates. Actually, two tit species that use to lay their eggs in a period that their fledging dates synchronize with the emerging dates of caterpillars are now evolving to reproductive in periods earlier than before the climate change. Several species are reacting like that and other ones are moving to the north in Europe for example. Nevertheless, and very curiously, European starling, Sturnus vulgaris, populations are behaving on the contrary: their laying dates are moving towards later spring and their distribution area is moving towards the south. In this study we explore and discuss about different factors that may explain this difference from other birds.

scholarly journals Predatory Behavior of Yellow Baboons

Behaviour ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 44-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Hausfater
Keyword(s):  
Prey Item ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Predatory Behavior ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Papio Cynocephalus ◽  
Vervet Monkeys ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Lepus Capensis ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Prey Items

Abstract1. A group of 32 yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Masai-Amboseli National Park, Kenya, caught and ate 45 vertebrate prey items during 2519.19 hours of observation. 2. Eighty percent of the prey items were mammals and the most frequently eaten species were African hares (Lepus capensis), vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and neonate gazelle (Cazella granti and G. thomsoni) in that order. The details of predatory behavior for each prey species are described. 3. Rates of predation were significantly higher during the long dry season than during other months of the year, although no correlation was found between total monthly rainfall and monthly rates of predation. A lognormal model however provided a good fit to the monthly rate of predation data suggesting that the rate of predation by Amboseli baboons was affected by several factors that acted multiplicatively with respect to each other and were themselves related to rainfall or dryness. 4. A mean of 2.3 individuals fed directly from the carcass of each prey item. A mean of 3.5 individuals per prey item fed directly or indirectly, i.e., on scraps, from each carcass. In general, both the number of individuals who fed from each carcass and the duration of their feeding bouts was dependent upon the gross body size of the prey item. Adult males fed directly from the carcass of prey items for about three times more minutes than expected from their number in the group; other classes of individuals fed directly from prey carcasses for only one-fourth as many minutes as expected. In general, an adult male would be expected to feed on each category of vertebrate prey at least once per year, while individuals of all other age-sex classes would be expected to feed on most prey categories only once every two years. 5. The most frequent social behavior around prey items was agonistic bouts; no cooperation, simultaneous feeding or specific begging gestures were observed. 6. Estimates of the total number of prey killed annually by Amboseli baboons indicate that baboon predation probably has a negligible effect on prey populations other than vervet monkeys. 7. It is speculated that the need for vitamin B12 underlies baboon predatory behavior, and perhaps that of other primate species as well.

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