Individual response in body mass and basal metabolism to the risks of predation and starvation in passerines
Wintering energy management in small passerines has focused on the adaptive regulation of the daily acquisition of energy reserves within a starvation–predation trade-off framework. However, the possibility that the energetic cost of living, i.e. basal metabolic rate (BMR), is being modulated as par...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositório: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/303417 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/303417 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Energy management Optimal body mass theory Food restriction Parus major Predation risk Winter ecology |
| Resumo: | Wintering energy management in small passerines has focused on the adaptive regulation of the daily acquisition of energy reserves within a starvation–predation trade-off framework. However, the possibility that the energetic cost of living, i.e. basal metabolic rate (BMR), is being modulated as part of the management energy strategy has been largely neglected. Here, we addressed this possibility by experimentally exposing captive great tits (Parus major) during winter to two consecutive treatments of increased starvation and predation risk for each individual bird. Body mass and BMR were measured prior to and after each week-long treatment. We predicted that birds should be lighter but with a higher metabolic capacity (higher BMR) as a response to increased predation risk, and that birds should increase internal reserves while reducing their cost of living (lower BMR) when exposed to increased starvation risk. Wintering great tits kept a constant body mass independently of a week-long predation or starvation treatment. However, great tits reduced the cost of living (lower BMR) when exposed to the starvation treatment, while BMR remained unaffected by the predation treatment. Energy management in wintering small birds partly relies on BMR regulation, which challenges the current theoretical framework based on body mass regulation. |
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