Genetics, local environment and health as factors influencing plasma carotenoids in wild American kestrels ( Falco sparverius)
Carotenoids are important as pigments for bright coloration of animals, and as physiologically active compounds with a wide array of health-related functions. Carotenoid-dependent coloration may have evolved as a signal to conspeci¢cs; however, factors that may limit availability of carotenoids are...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2000 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/38979 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/38979 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Carotenoids Diet heritability Immune functions American kestrel |
| Sumario: | Carotenoids are important as pigments for bright coloration of animals, and as physiologically active compounds with a wide array of health-related functions. Carotenoid-dependent coloration may have evolved as a signal to conspeci¢cs; however, factors that may limit availability of carotenoids are poorly known. We investigated how the acquisition of carotenoids may be constrained by availability in the environment, diet, genetic make-up and health status of wild American kestrels (Falco sparverius). Plasma concentrations of siblings at the time of £edging showed a high degree of resemblance ; however, a cross- fostering experiment revealed that variance was largely explained by nest of rearing, rather than nest of origin, thus indicating a low genetic component. A multivariate analysis of attributes of nestlings (sex, size, plasma proteins, immune function), parental reproduction (laying date, clutch size) and rearing conditions (brood size, size hierarchy, nestling mortality) showed only a small signi¢cant e¡ect of leuco- cyte di¡erentials on carotenoid concentrations of nestlings. A strong environmental e¡ect on plasma carotenoids was demonstrated by levels of adult kestrels being correlated within mated pairs, and having a signi¢cant association with the abundance of voles, the primary prey species, per territory |
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