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Is natural hatching asynchrony optimal? An experimental investigation of sibling competition patterns in a facultatively siblicidal seabird

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Abstract

In unpredictable environments, any tactic that enables avian parents to adjust brood size and, thus, energy expenditure to environmental conditions should be favoured. Hatching asynchrony (HA), which occurs whenever incubation commences before clutch completion, may comprise such a tactic. For instance, the sibling rivalry hypothesis states that the hierarchy among chicks, concomitant to HA, should both facilitate the adjustment of brood size to environmental conditions and reduce several components of sibling competition as compared to synchronous hatching, at both brood and individual levels. We thus predicted that brood aggression, begging and feeding rates should decrease and that older chick superiority should increase with HA increasing, leading to higher growth and survival rates. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of an experimental upward and downward manipulation of HA magnitude on behaviour, growth and survival of black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) chicks. In line with the sibling rivalry hypothesis, synchronous hatching increased aggression and tended to increase feeding rates by parents at the brood level. Begging rates, however, increased with HA contrary to our expectations. At the individual level, as HA magnitude increased, the younger chick was attacked and begged proportionally more often, experienced a slower growth and a higher mortality than its sibling. Overall, the occurrence of energetic costs triggered by synchronous hatching both for parents and chicks, together with the lower growth rate and increased mortality of the younger chick in highly asynchronous broods suggest that natural HA magnitude may be optimal.

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Acknowledgments

We thank J.-B. Ferdy and F. Helfenstein for their statistical advice. We also thank J. White, an anonymous referee, and the associate editor Ian Hartley for their critical comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. The study was financed within a 4-year grant from the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV ‘Programme 1162 SexCoMonArc’). This work originated in the lab EDB, part of the ‘Laboratoire d'Excellence’ (LABEX) entitled TULIP (ANR-10-LABX-41).

Ethical standards

This experiment was conducted under the approval of the USGS Alaska Science Center Animal Care and Use Committee, the IPEV Ethical Committee, in accordance with U.S. laws and under permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Alaska. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement of the U.S. Government.

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Author notes

  1. Scott A. Hatch

    Present address: Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation, 12850 Mountain Place, Anchorage, AK, 99516, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR5174 EDB (Laboratoire Évolution & Diversité Biologique), CNRS, ENFA, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne,, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Thomas Merkling, Lena Agdere, Elise Albert, Romain Durieux, Etienne Danchin & Pierrick Blanchard

  2. CNRS, UMR5174 EDB, Université Paul Sabatier, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Thomas Merkling, Lena Agdere, Elise Albert, Romain Durieux, Etienne Danchin & Pierrick Blanchard

  3. U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, 4210 University Drive, Anchorage, AK, 99508, USA

    Scott A. Hatch

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  1. Thomas Merkling
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  2. Lena Agdere
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Correspondence to Thomas Merkling.

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Communicated by I. R. Hartley

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Merkling, T., Agdere, L., Albert, E. et al. Is natural hatching asynchrony optimal? An experimental investigation of sibling competition patterns in a facultatively siblicidal seabird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 309–319 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1646-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1646-y

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