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Soravia C, Ashton BJ, Thornton A, Bourne AR, Ridley AR. High temperatures during early development reduce adult cognitive performance and reproductive success in a wild animal population. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 912:169111. [PMID: 38070557 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Revised: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Global warming is rapidly changing the phenology, distribution, behaviour and demography of wild animal populations. Recent studies in wild animals have shown that high temperatures can induce short-term cognitive impairment, and captive studies have demonstrated that heat exposure during early development can lead to long-term cognitive impairment. Given that cognition underpins behavioural flexibility and can be directly linked to fitness, understanding how high temperatures during early life might impact adult cognitive performance in wild animals is a critical next step to predict wildlife responses to climate change. Here, we investigated the relationship between temperatures experienced during development, adult cognitive performance, and reproductive success in wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). We found that higher mean daily maximum temperatures during nestling development led to long-term cognitive impairment in associative learning performance, but not reversal learning performance. Additionally, a higher number of hot days (exceeding 35.5 °C, temperature threshold at which foraging efficiency and offspring provisioning decline) during post-fledging care led to reduced reproductive success in adulthood. We did not find evidence that low reproductive success was linked to impaired associative learning performance: associative learning performance was not related to reproductive success. In contrast, reversal learning performance was negatively related to reproductive success in breeding adults. This suggests that reproduction can carry a cost in terms of reduced performance in cognitively demanding tasks, confirming previous evidence in this species. Taken together, these findings indicate that naturally occurring high temperatures during early development have long-term negative effects on cognition and reproductive success in wild animals. Compounding effects of high temperatures on current nestling mortality and on the long-term cognitive and reproductive performance of survivors are highly concerning given ongoing global warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla Soravia
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Benjamin J Ashton
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia; School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.
| | - Amanda R Bourne
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Australian Wildlife Conservancy, 322 Hay Street, Subiaco, WA, Australia.
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia; FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Host community-wide patterns of post-fledging behavior and survival of obligate brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds. Oecologia 2022; 198:981-993. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-022-05167-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Pike KN, Ashton BJ, Morgan KV, Ridley AR. Social and Individual Factors Influence Variation in Offspring Care in the Cooperatively Breeding Western Australian Magpie. Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Mirville MO, Kelley JL, Ridley AR. Group size and associative learning in the Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen dorsalis). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2062-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Keynan O, Ridley AR, Lotem A. Social foraging strategies and acquisition of novel foraging skills in cooperatively breeding Arabian babblers. Behav Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/aru181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Soler M, Pérez-Contreras T, Ibáñez-Álamo JD, Roncalli G, Macías-Sánchez E, de Neve L. Great spotted cuckoo fledglings often receive feedings from other magpie adults than their foster parents: which magpies accept to feed foreign cuckoo fledglings? PLoS One 2014; 9:e107412. [PMID: 25272009 PMCID: PMC4182665 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2014] [Accepted: 08/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural selection penalizes individuals that provide costly parental care to non-relatives. However, feedings to brood-parasitic fledglings by individuals other than their foster parents, although anecdotic, have been commonly observed, also in the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) – magpie (Pica pica) system, but this behaviour has never been studied in depth. In a first experiment, we here show that great spotted cuckoo fledglings that were translocated to a distant territory managed to survive. This implies that obtaining food from foreign magpies is a frequent and efficient strategy used by great spotted cuckoo fledglings. A second experiment, in which we presented a stuffed-cuckoo fledgling in magpie territories, showed that adult magpies caring for magpie fledglings responded aggressively in most of the trials and never tried to feed the stuffed cuckoo, whereas magpies that were caring for cuckoo fledglings reacted rarely with aggressive behavior and were sometimes disposed to feed the stuffed cuckoo. In a third experiment we observed feedings to post-fledgling cuckoos by marked adult magpies belonging to four different possibilities with respect to breeding status (i.e. composition of the brood: only cuckoos, only magpies, mixed, or failed breeding attempt). All non-parental feeding events to cuckoos were provided by magpies that were caring only for cuckoo fledglings. These results strongly support the conclusion that cuckoo fledglings that abandon their foster parents get fed by other adult magpies that are currently caring for other cuckoo fledglings. These findings are crucial to understand the co-evolutionary arms race between brood parasites and their hosts because they show that the presence of the host's own nestlings for comparison is likely a key clue to favour the evolution of fledgling discrimination and provide new insights on several relevant points such as learning mechanisms and multiparasitism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Soler
- Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
- Grupo Coevolución, Unidad Asociada al Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Tomás Pérez-Contreras
- Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
- Grupo Coevolución, Unidad Asociada al Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
| | | | - Gianluca Roncalli
- Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Elena Macías-Sánchez
- Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Liesbeth de Neve
- Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
- Department of Biology, Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
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Great spotted cuckoo fledglings are disadvantaged by magpie host parents when reared together with magpie nestlings. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1648-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Thompson AM, Ridley AR, Hockey PA, Finch FM, Britton A, Raihani NJ. The influence of siblings on begging behaviour. Anim Behav 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.07.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Thompson AM, Raihani NJ, Hockey PAR, Britton A, Finch FM, Ridley AR. The influence of fledgling location on adult provisioning: a test of the blackmail hypothesis. Proc Biol Sci 2013; 280:20130558. [PMID: 23576792 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
One theory to explain the existence of conspicuous solicitation is that it is a way for young to 'blackmail' carers into provisioning them, by threatening their own destruction. Fledgling birds offer a unique opportunity to investigate the 'blackmail theory', as their mobility enables them to influence the predation risk they face. We investigated a novel solicitation behaviour in fledgling pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor), where fledglings use their location to influence provisioning rates. We show that fledglings face a trade-off: the ground is a much more profitable location in terms of provisioning rate from adult carers, but they are at greater risk from predators owing to their limited flying ability and slow response to alarm calls. Young babbler fledglings move to the ground when hungry, signalling their state, and this stimulates adults to increase their provisioning rates. Once satiated, fledglings return to the safety of cover. By experimentally increasing terrestrial predation risk, we found that adults increased their provisioning rate to terrestrial but not arboreal fledglings. Thus, by moving to a riskier location, fledglings revealed their need and were able to manipulate adults to achieve higher provisioning rates. These results provide support for the 'blackmail theory'.
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Affiliation(s)
- A M Thompson
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
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