Corticosterone alone does not trigger a short term behavioural shift in incubating female common eiders Somateria mollissima, but does modify long term reproductive success

• Published in: Journal of Avian Biology
• Main Authors: Criscuolo, Francois, Chastel, Olivier, Bertile, Fabrice, Gabrielsen, Geir Wing, Le Maho, Yvon, Raclot, Thierry
• Other Authors: Université Paris Descartes - Faculté de Médecine (UPD5 Médecine), Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Norwegian Polar Institute
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Somateria mollissima
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00187744; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2005.03371.x

International audience The trade-off between reproductive effort and adult survival in birds is modulated by several factors. Corticosterone and prolactin have additive effects on reproductive behaviour by stimulating foraging and parental behaviours, respectively. When incubation is associated with fasting, nest desertion is supposed to be activated by an unknown refeeding signal when body condition becomes critically deteriorated. The concomitant rise in corticosterone levels has been suggested to be the triggering factor. We tested the role of corticosterone on reproductive success by observing the effect of corticosterone implants on reproductive success and on plasma prolactin concentration in female common eiders Somateria mollissima . Implanted females showed a significant increase in corticosterone and a decrease in prolactin levels. Despite their enhanced daily body mass loss, females did not abandon incubation nor did they start to refeed in the four days following implantation. These data show that the experimentally induced rise in plasma corticosterone concentration alone does not trigger nest desertion. However, after 25 days of incubation, implanted females displayed a higher rate of egg loss, suggesting lower nest attentiveness towards the end of incubation. We suggest that the short-term effects of corticosterone may be dependent on the energy state of the bird. However, the late-induced change in reproductive success is indirectly linked to corticosterone, and we suggest that either a prolactin decrease, or a depletion in protein body reserves, may participate in the longterm adjustment of incubation behaviour in female eiders.