Coccidial infection does not influence preening behavior in American goldfinches
Coccidial infection does not influence preening behavior in American goldfinches
复制标题
球虫感染不会影响美国金翅雀的梳理行为
作者：
A. Surmacki;G. Hill
鸟类的理羽行为对维持羽毛的温度调节和观赏功能具有重要意义。已经反复证明，鸟类在羽毛维护和其他活动之间权衡时间。然而，梳理的条件依赖性约束仍然几乎没有研究。在这里，我们提出了第一个实验测试的假设，肠道寄生虫感染损害整理活动。我们研究了雄性美洲金翅雀（Spinus tristis），一种以类胡萝卜素为基础的羽毛颜色。继前交替（春季）换羽，我们操纵健康的男性感染一些鸟类与等孢属。球虫和保持其他人免受感染。虽然金翅雀在整个圈养期间增加理羽，我们发现没有显着的效果，球虫治疗理羽行为。在自然条件下，鸟类获得食物的机会有限，并且从事更多活动，这可能会限制梳理羽毛的时间，因此球虫对羽毛维持的影响可能更加明显。
Preening behavior in birds is important for the maintenance of thermoregulatory and ornamental functions of plumage. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that birds trade off time between plumage maintenance and other activities. However, the condition-dependent constraints of preening remain virtually unstudied. Here, we present the first experimental test of the hypothesis that intestinal parasite infection impairs preening activity. We studied male American goldfinches (Spinus tristis), a species with carotenoid-based plumage coloration. Following pre-alternate (spring) molt, we manipulated the health of males by infecting some birds with Isospora spp. coccidia and keeping others free of the infection. Although the goldfinches increased preening throughout the captive period, we found no significant effect of coccidial treatment on preening behavior. The effect of coccidia on plumage maintenance may be more pronounced under natural conditions where birds have limited access to food and engage in more activities that might limit time available for preening.