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Predator-induced female behavior in the absence of male incubation feeding: an experimental study

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Abstract

Parental care plasticity is critical to understanding the ecological and evolutionary influence of nest predation on life history strategies. In birds, incubation imposes a trade-off between the requirements of females (i.e., food) and egg requirements (i.e., heat and protection from predators). However, studies on this topic are rare and usually restricted to species where the male feeds the incubating female, relaxing her incubation costs. Males and females can reduce their activity at the nest to avoid detection by predators. However, females could follow two alternative antipredator strategies: to delay their return to the nest to avoid attracting attention from the potential predator or to return to the nest as soon as possible to enhance nest concealment. In this study, we manipulated the perceived risk of nest predation of incubating common blackbirds (Turdus merula), a species without incubation feeding, to study female behavioral changes induced by nest predation risk. We show experimentally that female blackbirds can reduce their nest visits in the situation with higher nest predation risk. In addition, we confirm that females significantly delay their return to the nest in the presence of a nest predator, contradicting the nest concealment hypothesis. However, our results could be interpreted as a passive antipredator response (to minimize clues given to predators) or as an active antipredator response (to search for predators to expel them from their territories).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank D. Villanueva for their help in the field. M. Griesser, O. Sanllorente and two anonymous reviewers made useful comments to previous drafts. We also thank D. Nesbitt for revising the English version. We also thank the Junta de Andalucía for their economic support to the research group Comportamiento y Ecología Animal (RNM-339). This study was financially supported by a FPU predoctoral grant to JD I-Á (grant number 2004-5269), the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (project CGL2007-61940/BOS), and the Junta de Andalucía (project CVI-6653).

Ethical standards

The experiments on common blackbirds complied with the Spanish law on animal research and were approved by the regional government of Junta de Andalucía (RNM610). Ibáñez-Álamo et al. (2012) recommended that the effect of researcher disturbance on nest predation be studied for each model system, especially in those used to investigate avian nest predation per se. Following this recommendation, we tested the effect of our activity on blackbird nests and found that we did not increase the nest predation rate in this species Ibáñez-Álamo and Soler (2010b)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, CP 18071, Granada, Spain

    J. D. Ibáñez-Álamo & M. Soler

  2. Grupo Coevolución, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Universidad de Granada, CP 18071, Granada, Spain

    M. Soler

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  1. J. D. Ibáñez-Álamo
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  2. M. Soler
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Correspondence to J. D. Ibáñez-Álamo.

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Communicated by P. Bednekoff

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Ibáñez-Álamo, J.D., Soler, M. Predator-induced female behavior in the absence of male incubation feeding: an experimental study. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 1067–1073 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-012-1357-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-012-1357-9

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