The long-term consequences of egg predation
Disrupted breeding, caused by predation of eggs or young, may have long-term fitness consequences as costs related to initiating a new breeding attempt may reduce future reproduction and survival (the “cost of reproduction” hypothesis). Alternatively, these apparent costs may stem from animals avoid...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:beheco:24/2/564 2023-05-15T18:20:26+02:00 The long-term consequences of egg predation Hanssen, Sveinn Are Erikstad, Kjell Einar 2013-03-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/24/2/564 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 en eng Oxford University Press http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/24/2/564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 Copyright (C) 2013, International Society for Behavioral Ecology Research Article TEXT 2013 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 2015-02-28T18:07:16Z Disrupted breeding, caused by predation of eggs or young, may have long-term fitness consequences as costs related to initiating a new breeding attempt may reduce future reproduction and survival (the “cost of reproduction” hypothesis). Alternatively, these apparent costs may stem from animals avoiding breeding in areas where they have experienced previous predation (the “predator avoidance” hypothesis). We studied effects of nest predation in female common eiders Somateria mollissima by removing all eggs from newly initiated clutches; renesting attempts and future breeding of these females were thereafter registered and compared with controls where eggs were not removed. These groups were also compared with depredated birds not renesting to explore the possibility that apparent costs of renesting may in fact be predator avoidance. Fifty percent of the experimentally depredated females started a replacement clutch, always at a new nest site within the colony. In both the experimentally and naturally depredated groups, both the females that renested and the females not renesting showed a reduced recapture rate and lower number of future breeding attempts when compared with control females that successfully hatched their clutch, while apparent survival was not significantly affected by their reproductive allocation. Thus, losing offspring during a breeding attempt seems to lead to adaptive avoidance of the breeding site, which in turn may reduce future fitness if alternative breeding sites are not available. Text Somateria mollissima HighWire Press (Stanford University) Behavioral Ecology 24 2 564 569 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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English |
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Research Article Hanssen, Sveinn Are Erikstad, Kjell Einar The long-term consequences of egg predation |
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Research Article |
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Disrupted breeding, caused by predation of eggs or young, may have long-term fitness consequences as costs related to initiating a new breeding attempt may reduce future reproduction and survival (the “cost of reproduction” hypothesis). Alternatively, these apparent costs may stem from animals avoiding breeding in areas where they have experienced previous predation (the “predator avoidance” hypothesis). We studied effects of nest predation in female common eiders Somateria mollissima by removing all eggs from newly initiated clutches; renesting attempts and future breeding of these females were thereafter registered and compared with controls where eggs were not removed. These groups were also compared with depredated birds not renesting to explore the possibility that apparent costs of renesting may in fact be predator avoidance. Fifty percent of the experimentally depredated females started a replacement clutch, always at a new nest site within the colony. In both the experimentally and naturally depredated groups, both the females that renested and the females not renesting showed a reduced recapture rate and lower number of future breeding attempts when compared with control females that successfully hatched their clutch, while apparent survival was not significantly affected by their reproductive allocation. Thus, losing offspring during a breeding attempt seems to lead to adaptive avoidance of the breeding site, which in turn may reduce future fitness if alternative breeding sites are not available. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hanssen, Sveinn Are Erikstad, Kjell Einar |
author_facet |
Hanssen, Sveinn Are Erikstad, Kjell Einar |
author_sort |
Hanssen, Sveinn Are |
title |
The long-term consequences of egg predation |
title_short |
The long-term consequences of egg predation |
title_full |
The long-term consequences of egg predation |
title_fullStr |
The long-term consequences of egg predation |
title_full_unstemmed |
The long-term consequences of egg predation |
title_sort |
long-term consequences of egg predation |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/24/2/564 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 |
genre |
Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Somateria mollissima |
op_relation |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/24/2/564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2013, International Society for Behavioral Ecology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars198 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology |
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24 |
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2 |
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564 |
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569 |
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1766197964854788096 |