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Carotenoid-based bill and eye ring coloration as honest signals of condition: an experimental test in the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa)

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Abstract

Carotenoid pigments cannot be synthesized by vertebrates but must be ingested through the diet. As they seem to be a limited resource, carotenoid-based ornaments are particularly interesting as possible honest signals of individual quality, in particular of foraging efficiency and nutritional status. Some studies have demonstrated the condition dependence of carotenoid-based plumage in birds. However, many other carotenoid-pigmented bare parts (i.e. skin, caruncles, bills, cere, and tarsi) are present in birds but, in comparison with plumage, little is known about these traits as indicators of individual quality. Here, we show that the eye ring pigmentation and bill redness of the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) are positively associated to body condition and recent changes in body mass. Also, we found a negative relationship between these two traits and heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, an indicator of physiological stress (the relationship with bill redness being significant only for males). In an experiment, we found that after a period of reduction in food intake (with the consequent loss of body mass), food-restricted birds showed lower eye ring pigmentation than ad-libitum-fed birds. Therefore, different ornaments seem to reflect changes in body condition but at different speeds or intensities (eye ring, a fleshy ornament, appears to respond more rapidly to changes in the nutritional status than a keratinized structure as the bill). These results indicate that carotenoid-based ornaments are condition-dependent traits in the red-legged partridge, being therefore susceptible to be employed as honest signals of quality in sexual selection.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Salvador J. Luna, Manuel Reglero, Félix Paramio, and Maria Luísa Cuenca for assistance during data collection. Jesús Martínez-Padilla helped in color measurements in a previous version of the manuscript. We also thank the Managing Editor, Tatiana Czeschlik, for her help throughout the review process. Financial support was provided by the Research Project PAI-02-006 of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha. L.P.R. was supported by an FPU grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and a postdoctoral contract from the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha. Comments of François Mougeot, Joe Williams, and three anonymous referees substantially improved the first version of the manuscript. This study was conducted according to current Spanish laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), Ronda de Toledo, s/n, E-13005, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez & Javier Viñuela

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK

    Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez

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  1. Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez
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  2. Javier Viñuela
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Correspondence to Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez.

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Pérez-Rodríguez, L., Viñuela, J. Carotenoid-based bill and eye ring coloration as honest signals of condition: an experimental test in the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa). Naturwissenschaften 95, 821–830 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0389-5

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