Does nest predation risk induce parent birds to eat nestlings' fecal sacs? An experimental study
Does nest predation risk induce parent birds to eat nestlings' fecal sacs? An experimental study
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DOI：
10.5735/086.050.0106
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发表时间：
2013-04-12
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
Soler, Manuel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ibanez-Alamo, Juan D.;Sanllorente, Olivia;Soler, Manuel
经常观察到成年鸟食用雏鸟的粪便。然而，粪囊摄入很少受到关注，包括缺乏实验测试来了解这种行为。传统上，它被解释为“父母营养假说”（父母获得营养和能量）或“经济处置假说”（父母节省时间做其他任务）。在这里，我们提出了第三种解释，“巢捕食假说”：父母摄取粪便囊，以减少巢检测在巢捕食者的存在。我们实验操纵的巢捕食风险认为成年常见的乌鸫（Turdus merula）。我们检测到的影响，育雏大小的去除和摄入的粪便，而我们的实验并没有增加粪便囊消耗。然而，我们发现其他证据支持巢捕食可能在这种亲护行为中发挥更微妙的作用：（1）两性对粪便摄入的贡献相等;（2）在具有最高巢捕食风险的种群中，成年人摄入更多的粪便;（3）吃粪便囊的父母增加了他们在巢中的持久性。
Adult birds are frequently observed consuming nestling feces. However, fecal sac ingestion has received little attention, including a lack of experimental tests to understand such behavior. Traditionally, it has been explained by the "parental nutrition hypothesis" (parents acquire nutrients and energy) or the "economic disposal hypothesis" (parents save time to do other tasks). Here, we propose a third explanation, the "nest predation hypothesis": parents ingest fecal sacs to reduce nest detectability in the presence of a nest predator. We experimentally manipulated the nest-predation risk perceived by adult common blackbirds (Turdus merula). We detected an effect of brood size in the removed and ingested feces while our experiment did not increase fecal sac comsumption. However, we found other evidences supporting that nest predation could play a more subtle role in this parental care behavior: (1) both sexes contributed equally to fecal ingestion; (2) adults ingested more feces in the population with the highest nest-predation risk; and (3) parents that ate fecal sacs increased their permanence at the nest.