Gizzard and other lean mass components increase, yet basal metabolic rates decrease, when red knots Calidris canutus are shifted from soft to hard-shelled food
We measured basal metabolic rate (BMR), body mass, lean mass, and gizzard mass of captive red knots Calidris canutus islandica maintained on a trout chow diet (soft-texture, low ash and water content) for several years and then shifted to small mussels Mytilus edulis (hard-texture, high ash and wate...
| Published in: | Journal of Avian Biology |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2004
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11370/73d63856-7958-4475-8c45-4144c80942c7 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/73d63856-7958-4475-8c45-4144c80942c7 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03259.x https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/6678152/2004JAvianBiolPiersma.pdf |
| Summary: | We measured basal metabolic rate (BMR), body mass, lean mass, and gizzard mass of captive red knots Calidris canutus islandica maintained on a trout chow diet (soft-texture, low ash and water content) for several years and then shifted to small mussels Mytilus edulis (hard-texture, high ash and water content). During a 3-week period of feeding on mussels, body mass, lean mass, and gizzard mass increased 7.3 g (+7%), 10.5 g (+ 12%), and 4.9 g (+213%), respectively, yet BMR decreased from 0.96 to 0.89 W (- 8%). Under the new mussel regime, red knots must have reduced the metabolic intensity of some of the tissues. This suggests that the experimental red knots experienced the transition to a mussel diet as stressful and energy limiting, resulting in an energy-saving strategy by reducing BMR in spite of hypertrophy of the gizzard and other organs. |
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