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Declining health status of Brown Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi) parents and their offspring during chick development

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Abstract

During breeding, Brown Skuas (Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi) perform a great physical effort in the care and maintenance of the nest. Interestingly, the breeding colony on which this work was conducted is in steady decline in recent years. In order to understand the physiological background responsible for the trade off between reproductive effort and health status, in adults and the possible reasons for the colony decline, we evaluated the health status in Brown Skuas parents and growing chicks and blood samples were obtained in three different breeding stages from adults: In (incubation), Er (after egg hatching), and Lr (during chick rearing) and from developing chicks. Serum albumin, α-, β-. and γ-globulin fractions, IgY level and corticosterone were determined in adults, while plasma proteins concentration, electrolytes, and γ-globulins were determined in chicks. Differences in albumin, α-, and γ-globulins and IgY levels were observed in adults through the reproductive stages, indicating a decline in nutritional status and immunocompetence during breeding. In addition, a decline in body condition and immune status was observed in growing chicks, indicating a close relationship between the decrease of the health status and reproductive effort performed by adults and the physiological status of the nestlings during development.

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Acknowledgments

This work was made possible thanks to Instituto Antártico Argentino (IAA), which provided logistical support and permission to carry out the fieldwork at Potter Peninsula. This work was supported by Proyecto de Investigación Plurianual (PIP- CONICET n:0158) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica and Instituto Antártico Argentino (PICTA-2010-0080) (To Diego Montalti) and partially supported by (PICT-2014-3323) (to AEI). Special thanks to Juan Manuel Girini and Facundo Xavier Palacio for their help with statistical analysis, as well as to the Editor and reviewers for their interesting and helpful critics of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sección Ornitología, Div. Zool. Vert., Museo de la Plata (FCNyM-UNLP, CONICET), Paseo del Bosque s/n la Plata (B1900FWA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Andrés Esteban Ibañez & Diego Montalti

  2. Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA (Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

    Maricel Graña Grilli

  3. Laboratorio de Análisis Clínicos y Bioquímicos del Hospital Interzonal General de Agudos (HIGA) Luisa C. Gandulfo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Amalia Figueroa & Marcela Pari

  4. Instituto Antártico Argentino (IAA), Capital Federal, Argentina

    Diego Montalti

Authors
  1. Andrés Esteban Ibañez
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  2. Maricel Graña Grilli
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  3. Amalia Figueroa
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  4. Marcela Pari
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  5. Diego Montalti
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Correspondence to Andrés Esteban Ibañez.

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Ibañez, A.E., Graña Grilli, M., Figueroa, A. et al. Declining health status of Brown Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi) parents and their offspring during chick development. Polar Biol 41, 193–200 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2181-5

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