Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort?
Sexual differences in food provisioning rates of monomorphic seabirds are well known but poorly understood. Here, we address three hypotheses that attempt to explain female-biased food provisioning in common guillemots Uria aalge: (1) males spend more time in nest defence, (2) females have greater f...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:5765 2024-06-09T07:45:27+00:00 Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? Thaxter, Chris B. Daunt, Francis Hamer, Keith C. Watanuki, Yutaka Harris, Mike P. Gremillet, David Peters, Gerrit Wanless, Sarah 2009-01 http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/5765/ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121637346/abstract unknown Thaxter, Chris B.; Daunt, Francis orcid:0000-0003-4638-3388 Hamer, Keith C.; Watanuki, Yutaka; Harris, Mike P.; Gremillet, David; Peters, Gerrit; Wanless, Sarah. 2009 Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? Journal of Avian Biology, 40 (1). 75-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2008.04507.x <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2008.04507.x> Marine Sciences Zoology Ecology and Environment Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2009 ftnerc 2024-05-15T08:49:44Z Sexual differences in food provisioning rates of monomorphic seabirds are well known but poorly understood. Here, we address three hypotheses that attempt to explain female-biased food provisioning in common guillemots Uria aalge: (1) males spend more time in nest defence, (2) females have greater foraging efficiency, and (3) males allocate a greater proportion of foraging effort to self-maintenance. We found that males spent no more time with chicks than females but made longer trips and travelled further from the colony. There was extensive overlap between sexes in core foraging areas, indicating that females were not excluding males from feeding opportunities close to the colony. However, as a result of their longer trips, the total foraging areas of males were much greater than those of females. There was no difference between sexes in overall dive rate per hour at sea, in behaviour during individual dives or in a number of other measures of foraging efficiency including the frequency, depth and duration of dives and the dive: pause ratio during the final dive bout of each trip, which was presumably used by both sexes to obtain prey for the chick. These data strongly suggest that sexes did not differ in their ability to locate and capture prey. Yet males made almost twice as many dives per trip as females, suggesting that males made more dives than females for their own benefit. These results support the hypothesis that female-biased food provisioning arose from a difference between sexes in the allocation of foraging effort between parents and offspring, in anticipation of a prolonged period of male-only post-fledging care of the chick, and not from differences in foraging efficiency or time spent in nest defence. Article in Journal/Newspaper common guillemot Uria aalge uria Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Journal of Avian Biology 40 1 75 84 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Marine Sciences Zoology Ecology and Environment |
spellingShingle |
Marine Sciences Zoology Ecology and Environment Thaxter, Chris B. Daunt, Francis Hamer, Keith C. Watanuki, Yutaka Harris, Mike P. Gremillet, David Peters, Gerrit Wanless, Sarah Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
topic_facet |
Marine Sciences Zoology Ecology and Environment |
description |
Sexual differences in food provisioning rates of monomorphic seabirds are well known but poorly understood. Here, we address three hypotheses that attempt to explain female-biased food provisioning in common guillemots Uria aalge: (1) males spend more time in nest defence, (2) females have greater foraging efficiency, and (3) males allocate a greater proportion of foraging effort to self-maintenance. We found that males spent no more time with chicks than females but made longer trips and travelled further from the colony. There was extensive overlap between sexes in core foraging areas, indicating that females were not excluding males from feeding opportunities close to the colony. However, as a result of their longer trips, the total foraging areas of males were much greater than those of females. There was no difference between sexes in overall dive rate per hour at sea, in behaviour during individual dives or in a number of other measures of foraging efficiency including the frequency, depth and duration of dives and the dive: pause ratio during the final dive bout of each trip, which was presumably used by both sexes to obtain prey for the chick. These data strongly suggest that sexes did not differ in their ability to locate and capture prey. Yet males made almost twice as many dives per trip as females, suggesting that males made more dives than females for their own benefit. These results support the hypothesis that female-biased food provisioning arose from a difference between sexes in the allocation of foraging effort between parents and offspring, in anticipation of a prolonged period of male-only post-fledging care of the chick, and not from differences in foraging efficiency or time spent in nest defence. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thaxter, Chris B. Daunt, Francis Hamer, Keith C. Watanuki, Yutaka Harris, Mike P. Gremillet, David Peters, Gerrit Wanless, Sarah |
author_facet |
Thaxter, Chris B. Daunt, Francis Hamer, Keith C. Watanuki, Yutaka Harris, Mike P. Gremillet, David Peters, Gerrit Wanless, Sarah |
author_sort |
Thaxter, Chris B. |
title |
Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
title_short |
Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
title_full |
Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
title_fullStr |
Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
title_sort |
sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/5765/ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121637346/abstract |
genre |
common guillemot Uria aalge uria |
genre_facet |
common guillemot Uria aalge uria |
op_relation |
Thaxter, Chris B.; Daunt, Francis orcid:0000-0003-4638-3388 Hamer, Keith C.; Watanuki, Yutaka; Harris, Mike P.; Gremillet, David; Peters, Gerrit; Wanless, Sarah. 2009 Sex-specific food provisioning in a monomorphic seabird, the common guillemot Uria aalge: nest defence, foraging efficiency or foraging effort? Journal of Avian Biology, 40 (1). 75-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2008.04507.x <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2008.04507.x> |
container_title |
Journal of Avian Biology |
container_volume |
40 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
75 |
op_container_end_page |
84 |
_version_ |
1801374824073789440 |