Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species
Prey size selection in some bird species is determined by the size of the beak. However, we assumed for bird species swallowing whole prey that a cognitive process may be involved. As cognitive feature, brain mass was used. We hypothesized that the mass of the brain was more strongly positively corr...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 |
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 2024-05-19T07:48:29+00:00 Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species Laursen, Karsten Møller, Anders Pape Paiva, Vitor Hugo Rodrigues 15 June Foundation, Denmark 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 3, page e0248615 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2021 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 2024-05-01T06:54:26Z Prey size selection in some bird species is determined by the size of the beak. However, we assumed for bird species swallowing whole prey that a cognitive process may be involved. As cognitive feature, brain mass was used. We hypothesized that the mass of the brain was more strongly positively correlated with prey size than morphological features such as beak volume, gizzard mass and body mass. We tested this hypothesis on eiders Somateria mollissima that swallow the prey whole, by using mean and maximum size of nine prey categories. Eiders were collected at the main wintering grounds in Denmark. As index of brain mass we used head volume, which is positively correlated with brain mass ( r 2 = 0.73). Head volume of eiders was significantly, positive correlated with mean and maximum size of blue mussels Mytilus edulis , razor clams Ensis directus and all prey sizes combined and the maximum size of draft whelk Hinia reticulata and conch Buccinum undatum . Gizzard mass was also significantly positively correlated with maximum size of draft whelk and conch. Beak volume and body mass was not significantly correlated with the size of any of the nine food items. Analyses of effect size for organs showed that head volume was positively related to prey size, whereas beak volume, gizzard mass and body mass did not show a significant positive relationship. These results indicate that cognitive processes connected to brain mass may be involved in prey size selection by eiders. Article in Journal/Newspaper Somateria mollissima PLOS PLOS ONE 16 3 e0248615 |
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English |
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Prey size selection in some bird species is determined by the size of the beak. However, we assumed for bird species swallowing whole prey that a cognitive process may be involved. As cognitive feature, brain mass was used. We hypothesized that the mass of the brain was more strongly positively correlated with prey size than morphological features such as beak volume, gizzard mass and body mass. We tested this hypothesis on eiders Somateria mollissima that swallow the prey whole, by using mean and maximum size of nine prey categories. Eiders were collected at the main wintering grounds in Denmark. As index of brain mass we used head volume, which is positively correlated with brain mass ( r 2 = 0.73). Head volume of eiders was significantly, positive correlated with mean and maximum size of blue mussels Mytilus edulis , razor clams Ensis directus and all prey sizes combined and the maximum size of draft whelk Hinia reticulata and conch Buccinum undatum . Gizzard mass was also significantly positively correlated with maximum size of draft whelk and conch. Beak volume and body mass was not significantly correlated with the size of any of the nine food items. Analyses of effect size for organs showed that head volume was positively related to prey size, whereas beak volume, gizzard mass and body mass did not show a significant positive relationship. These results indicate that cognitive processes connected to brain mass may be involved in prey size selection by eiders. |
author2 |
Paiva, Vitor Hugo Rodrigues 15 June Foundation, Denmark |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Laursen, Karsten Møller, Anders Pape |
spellingShingle |
Laursen, Karsten Møller, Anders Pape Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
author_facet |
Laursen, Karsten Møller, Anders Pape |
author_sort |
Laursen, Karsten |
title |
Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
title_short |
Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
title_full |
Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
title_fullStr |
Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
title_full_unstemmed |
Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
title_sort |
brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 |
genre |
Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Somateria mollissima |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 3, page e0248615 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248615 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
e0248615 |
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