Unconditional adoption rules out the need for parent–offspring recognition in a single‐brooded colonial seabird

Ethology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Becciu ◽  
Letizia Campioni ◽  
Bruno Massa ◽  
Giacomo Dell'Omo
Keyword(s):  
Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 482
Author(s):  
Won Young Lee ◽  
Seongseop Park ◽  
Kil Won Kim ◽  
Jeong-Hoon Kim ◽  
Jong-Ku Gal ◽  
...  

Theory predicts that sympatric predators compete for food under conditions of limited resources. Competition would occur even within the same species, between neighboring populations, because of overlapping foraging habits. Thus, neighboring populations of the same species are hypothesized to face strong competition. To test the hypothesis that intra-specific competition is more intense than inter-specific competition owing to a lack of niche partitioning, we estimated the foraging area and diving depths of two colonial seabird species at two neighboring colonies. Using GPS and time-depth recorders, we tracked foraging space use of sympatric breeding Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins at Ardley Island (AI) and Narębski Point (NP) at King George Island, Antarctica. GPS tracks showed that there was a larger overlap in the foraging areas between the two species than within each species. In dive parameters, Gentoo penguins performed deeper and longer dives than Chinstrap penguins at the same colonies. At the colony level, Gentoo penguins from NP undertook deeper and longer dives than those at AI, whereas Chinstrap penguins did not show such intra-specific differences in dives. Stable isotope analysis of δ13C and δ15N isotopes in blood demonstrated both inter- and intra-specific differences. Both species of penguin at AI exhibited higher δ13C and δ15N values than those at NP, and in both locations, Gentoo penguins had higher δ13C and lower δ15N values than Chinstrap penguins. Isotopic niches showed that there were lower inter-specific overlaps than intra-specific overlaps. This suggests that, despite the low intra-specific spatial overlap, diets of conspecifics from different colonies remained more similar, resulting in the higher isotopic niche overlaps. Collectively, our results support the hypothesis that intra-specific competition is higher than inter-specific competition, leading to spatial segregation of the neighboring populations of the same species.


2006 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 303-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Suryan ◽  
David B. Irons ◽  
Evelyn D. Brown ◽  
Patrick G.R. Jodice ◽  
Daniel D. Roby

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 538-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Boulinier ◽  
Karen D McCoy ◽  
Nigel G Yoccoz ◽  
Julien Gasparini ◽  
Torkild Tveraa

Habitat selection and dispersal behaviour are key processes in evolutionary ecology. Recent studies have suggested that individuals may use the reproductive performance of conspecifics as a source of public information on breeding patch quality for dispersal decisions, but experimental evidence is still limited for species breeding in aggregates, i.e. colonial species. We addressed this issue by manipulating the local breeding success of marked individuals and that of their neighbours on a series of breeding patches of a colonial seabird, the black-legged kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ). Based on previous observations in this species, we predicted that individuals that lost their eggs on successful patches would attend their nest and come back to it the year after at a higher rate than individuals that lost their eggs on patches where their neighbours were also in failure. As predicted, the attendance of breeders and prospectors was strongly affected by the local level of breeding success, resulting in differential site fidelity and recruitment. This suggests that individuals used information conveyed by conspecific breeding performance to make decisions relative to breeding site selection. This process can amplify the response of these populations to environmental change and may have contributed to the evolution of colonial breeding.


2009 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas ◽  
Dariusz Jakubas ◽  
Trond Øigarden ◽  
Jan T. Lifjeld

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. D. Douglas ◽  
J. E. Co ◽  
T. H. Jones ◽  
W. E. Conner ◽  
J. F. Day
Keyword(s):  

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