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Mothers under stress? Hatching sex ratio in relation to maternal baseline corticosterone in the common tern (Sterna hirundo)

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Abstract

Sex ratio of progeny should be balanced if costs and benefits of rearing sons and daughters are equal. However, shifts in sex ratio have been demonstrated across bird species and it was suggested that females are able to adjust the primary sex ratio. One possible mechanism is the glucocorticoid corticosterone which rises under stressful conditions and can be deposited into egg yolk by mothers. We analysed primary sex ratio of common terns Sterna hirundo from 2006 to 2008 and related it to maternal baseline corticosterone level, laying date and year. Therefore, we took 101 blood samples of 71 breeding females via blood sucking bugs, a method with negligible stress for the birds. Sex ratio did not differ from parity in any of the analysed years, which were characterized by poor food availability and breeding success. Only within 1 year there was a tendency for more females in the last hatched chick. Neither corticosterone level nor laying date or year showed an influence on hatching sex ratio. The negative result concerning primary sex ratio and maternal baseline corticosterone level might suggest conditions to be good enough for mothers to prevent them from depositing high levels of corticosterone into eggs.

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Acknowledgments

We want to thank C. Bauch, S. Kreutzer and J. Krauss for assistance in taking blood samples, G. Wagenknecht for sexing the chicks and many field assistants for their help in collecting field data. Many thanks to G. Schaub from the University of Bochum, Germany, who delivered the bugs. H. Zhang and A. Braasch helped with statistics and M. Benito, L. Szostek and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. At the CNRS, we thank A. Lacroix and C. Trouvé for their excellent work on hormone assays. The study was done under the license of Bezirksregierung Weser-Ems and Stadt Wilhelmshaven und was supported financially by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BE916/8).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Avian Research, “Vogelwarte Helgoland”, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Juliane Riechert & Peter H. Becker

  2. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS, 79360, Villiers en Bois, France

    Olivier Chastel

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  1. Juliane Riechert
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Correspondence to Juliane Riechert.

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Riechert, J., Chastel, O. & Becker, P.H. Mothers under stress? Hatching sex ratio in relation to maternal baseline corticosterone in the common tern (Sterna hirundo). J Comp Physiol A 199, 799–805 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0840-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0840-8

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