Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)
Animals and plants routinely produce more offspring than they can afford to rear. Mothers can favour certain young by conferring on them competitive advantages such as a leading position in the birth sequence, more resources or hormones. Avian mothers create hatching asynchrony within a clutch and a...
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2012
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11370/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/14162110/journal.pone.0047763.pdf |
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ftunigroningenpu:oai:pure.rug.nl:publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 2024-06-23T07:51:49+00:00 Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) Muller, Martina S. Roelofs, Yvonne Erikstad, Kjell Einar Groothuis, Ton G. G. 2012-10-24 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11370/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/14162110/journal.pone.0047763.pdf eng eng https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Muller , M S , Roelofs , Y , Erikstad , K E & Groothuis , T G G 2012 , ' Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) ' , PLoS ONE , vol. 7 , no. 10 , e47763 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 GULL LARUS-MICHAHELLIS YOLK ANDROGENS BEGGING BEHAVIOR INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT EASTERN BLUEBIRDS ZEBRA FINCHES ADOPTION EGGS TESTOSTERONE CHICKS article 2012 ftunigroningenpu https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 2024-06-03T16:26:37Z Animals and plants routinely produce more offspring than they can afford to rear. Mothers can favour certain young by conferring on them competitive advantages such as a leading position in the birth sequence, more resources or hormones. Avian mothers create hatching asynchrony within a clutch and at the same time bestow the eggs with different concentrations of androgens that may enhance or counteract the competitive advantage experienced by early-hatching "core'' young. In siblicidal birds, core young assume a dominant social position in the nest due to their size advantage and when threatened with starvation fatally attack subdominant later-hatching "marginal'' young. A role for maternal androgens in siblicidal aggression has frequently been suggested but never tested. We studied this in the facultatively siblicidal black-headed kittiwake. We found that marginal eggs contain higher instead of lower concentrations of androgens than core eggs. Surprisingly, exposure to experimentally elevated yolk androgens increased sibling aggression and dominance, even though in nature marginal eggs never produce dominant chicks. We propose the "adoption facilitation hypothesis'' to explain this paradox. This cliff-nesting colonial species has a high adoption rate: ejected marginal kittiwake chicks frequently fall into other nests containing chicks of similar or smaller size and exposure to yolk androgens might help them integrate themselves into a foster nest. Article in Journal/Newspaper Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla University of Groningen research database PLoS ONE 7 10 e47763 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Groningen research database |
op_collection_id |
ftunigroningenpu |
language |
English |
topic |
GULL LARUS-MICHAHELLIS YOLK ANDROGENS BEGGING BEHAVIOR INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT EASTERN BLUEBIRDS ZEBRA FINCHES ADOPTION EGGS TESTOSTERONE CHICKS |
spellingShingle |
GULL LARUS-MICHAHELLIS YOLK ANDROGENS BEGGING BEHAVIOR INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT EASTERN BLUEBIRDS ZEBRA FINCHES ADOPTION EGGS TESTOSTERONE CHICKS Muller, Martina S. Roelofs, Yvonne Erikstad, Kjell Einar Groothuis, Ton G. G. Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
topic_facet |
GULL LARUS-MICHAHELLIS YOLK ANDROGENS BEGGING BEHAVIOR INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT EASTERN BLUEBIRDS ZEBRA FINCHES ADOPTION EGGS TESTOSTERONE CHICKS |
description |
Animals and plants routinely produce more offspring than they can afford to rear. Mothers can favour certain young by conferring on them competitive advantages such as a leading position in the birth sequence, more resources or hormones. Avian mothers create hatching asynchrony within a clutch and at the same time bestow the eggs with different concentrations of androgens that may enhance or counteract the competitive advantage experienced by early-hatching "core'' young. In siblicidal birds, core young assume a dominant social position in the nest due to their size advantage and when threatened with starvation fatally attack subdominant later-hatching "marginal'' young. A role for maternal androgens in siblicidal aggression has frequently been suggested but never tested. We studied this in the facultatively siblicidal black-headed kittiwake. We found that marginal eggs contain higher instead of lower concentrations of androgens than core eggs. Surprisingly, exposure to experimentally elevated yolk androgens increased sibling aggression and dominance, even though in nature marginal eggs never produce dominant chicks. We propose the "adoption facilitation hypothesis'' to explain this paradox. This cliff-nesting colonial species has a high adoption rate: ejected marginal kittiwake chicks frequently fall into other nests containing chicks of similar or smaller size and exposure to yolk androgens might help them integrate themselves into a foster nest. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Muller, Martina S. Roelofs, Yvonne Erikstad, Kjell Einar Groothuis, Ton G. G. |
author_facet |
Muller, Martina S. Roelofs, Yvonne Erikstad, Kjell Einar Groothuis, Ton G. G. |
author_sort |
Muller, Martina S. |
title |
Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
title_short |
Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
title_full |
Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
title_fullStr |
Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) |
title_sort |
maternal androgens increase sibling aggression, dominance, and competitive ability in the siblicidal black-legged kittiwake (rissa tridactyla) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11370/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/14162110/journal.pone.0047763.pdf |
genre |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla |
genre_facet |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla |
op_source |
Muller , M S , Roelofs , Y , Erikstad , K E & Groothuis , T G G 2012 , ' Maternal Androgens Increase Sibling Aggression, Dominance, and Competitive Ability in the Siblicidal Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) ' , PLoS ONE , vol. 7 , no. 10 , e47763 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 |
op_relation |
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/6673473f-709a-412b-838a-d266d82e6ff4 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047763 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e47763 |
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1802642941432299520 |