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Nest-relief behaviors and usage of call types in the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)

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Abstract

In bi-parental species, breeding pairs cooperate to regulate incubation duration through nest-relief behavior, using vocal signals to communicate when exchanging incubation duties. To better understand this behavior, two important questions are (1) which vocalizations are mainly used with nest-relief behavior and (2) which parent initiates nest relief using these vocal signals. In this study, we examined the vocalizations and behaviors of incubating pairs of Kentish plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus). We categorized nest-relief calls and investigated the major call types used when initiating nest relief and when the partner responded and analyzed the number of initiating calls by sex and behavioral role (relieving or incubating). We observed that they used four call types: type A (“tit”), type B (“pee”), type B-long (“PEEjurrr”), and type C (“rrooh”). Call type C, which is known as an agonistic call, was the most used nest-relief call. Additionally, we found that relieving individuals produced initiating calls more frequently than incubating individuals, but there were no sex differences. These results suggest that Kentish plovers make use of specific call types during nest relief, and we discuss the possibility of relationships between nest-relief calls and coordinative behavior when dividing labor in a parental pair.

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Data availability statement

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments. We thank Saemangeum Project Office and Korea Rural Community Corporation for permission to collect data in the field and are grateful to the laboratory members of the Eco-Behav lab at Chonnam National University for their helpful assistance in this study. We also thank Dong-Geun Lee for providing Kentish plover drawings.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government [NRF-2019R1F1A1061024].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Dong-Yun Lee

  2. Department of Biology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Ju-Hyun Lee & Ha-Cheol Sung

  3. Honam National Institute of Biological Resources, Mokpo, Republic of Korea

    Woo-Yuel Kim

  4. Natural History Division, National Science Museum, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Dong-Yun Lee

Authors
  1. Dong-Yun Lee
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  2. Ju-Hyun Lee
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  3. Woo-Yuel Kim
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  4. Ha-Cheol Sung
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Correspondence to Ha-Cheol Sung.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

No approval of any research ethics committees was required to accomplish the goals of this study because only observational work was conducted with an unregulated vertebrate species. We collected all data in compliance with the current laws of South Korea and did not capture any birds.

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Lee, DY., Lee, JH., Kim, WY. et al. Nest-relief behaviors and usage of call types in the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus). J Ethol 41, 231–241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-023-00792-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-023-00792-3

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