Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring
Animals are thought to adjust their behavior optimally to any given environment. So-called behavioral syndromes, or consistent patterns of behavior across environments, contradict this assumption of unlimited plasticity. We studied nest defense aggressiveness of female Ural owls (244 females with 48...
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2009
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:beheco:arp062v1 2023-05-15T18:41:29+02:00 Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring Kontiainen, Pekka Pietiäinen, Hannu Huttunen, Kalle Karell, Patrik Kolunen, Heikki Brommer, Jon E. 2009-05-06 15:57:44.0 text/html http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/arp062v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 en eng Oxford University Press http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/arp062v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 Copyright (C) 2009, International Society for Behavioral Ecology Article TEXT 2009 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 2016-11-16T18:36:31Z Animals are thought to adjust their behavior optimally to any given environment. So-called behavioral syndromes, or consistent patterns of behavior across environments, contradict this assumption of unlimited plasticity. We studied nest defense aggressiveness of female Ural owls (244 females with 482 breeding attempts) breeding in a highly variable environment created by fluctuations in the abundance of their main prey (field and bank voles) across years. Ural owls were more aggressive when voles were increasing in density as well as when the Ural owls had large brood sizes and laid early in the season. Aggressive nest defense was highly repeatable between breeding attempts ( r = 0.52 ± 0.05 standard error), but individuals also differed in their plasticity (the extent to which they adjusted the level of their aggression to the varying food conditions). Fierce nest defenders produced more recruits to the local breeding population, but a female's survival was not affected by her intensity of nest defense. A path analysis revealed that nest defense aggressiveness, rather than its correlates vole abundance, brood size, or laying date, best explained offspring recruitment. Our findings provide an ultimate explanation for the Ural owl's extremely aggressive nest defense. Text Ural Owl HighWire Press (Stanford University) Behavioral Ecology 20 4 789 796 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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Article Kontiainen, Pekka Pietiäinen, Hannu Huttunen, Kalle Karell, Patrik Kolunen, Heikki Brommer, Jon E. Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
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Animals are thought to adjust their behavior optimally to any given environment. So-called behavioral syndromes, or consistent patterns of behavior across environments, contradict this assumption of unlimited plasticity. We studied nest defense aggressiveness of female Ural owls (244 females with 482 breeding attempts) breeding in a highly variable environment created by fluctuations in the abundance of their main prey (field and bank voles) across years. Ural owls were more aggressive when voles were increasing in density as well as when the Ural owls had large brood sizes and laid early in the season. Aggressive nest defense was highly repeatable between breeding attempts ( r = 0.52 ± 0.05 standard error), but individuals also differed in their plasticity (the extent to which they adjusted the level of their aggression to the varying food conditions). Fierce nest defenders produced more recruits to the local breeding population, but a female's survival was not affected by her intensity of nest defense. A path analysis revealed that nest defense aggressiveness, rather than its correlates vole abundance, brood size, or laying date, best explained offspring recruitment. Our findings provide an ultimate explanation for the Ural owl's extremely aggressive nest defense. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kontiainen, Pekka Pietiäinen, Hannu Huttunen, Kalle Karell, Patrik Kolunen, Heikki Brommer, Jon E. |
author_facet |
Kontiainen, Pekka Pietiäinen, Hannu Huttunen, Kalle Karell, Patrik Kolunen, Heikki Brommer, Jon E. |
author_sort |
Kontiainen, Pekka |
title |
Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
title_short |
Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
title_full |
Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
title_fullStr |
Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
title_full_unstemmed |
Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
title_sort |
aggressive ural owl mothers recruit more offspring |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/arp062v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 |
genre |
Ural Owl |
genre_facet |
Ural Owl |
op_relation |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/arp062v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2009, International Society for Behavioral Ecology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp062 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
789 |
op_container_end_page |
796 |
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1766230998776807424 |