Exhausted with foraging: Foraging behavior is related to oxidative stress in chick-rearing seabirds

To understand foraging strategies and behavioral flexibility in wild animals, it is important to evaluate the physiological costs imposed by foraging efforts and how these costs affect foraging and provisioning behavior. Oxidative stress is a possible physiological indicator associated with foraging behavior in wild seabirds, and may also affect their reproductive performance. However, no previous study has simultaneously recorded foraging behavior and the associated oxidative stress in wild seabirds. Using an integrative approach based on oxidative stress measurements and bio-logging techniques (i.e., the use of animal-borne sensors), we determined the relationships between foraging behavior and oxidative stress in chick-rearing streaked shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas in 2018 and 2019. To quantify their oxidative stress, we measured reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROMs) and biological antioxidant potential (BAP) in their plasma. We found that the d-ROMs levels were positively related to the maximum distance from the colony and the number of takeoffs, especially in 2019 when shearwaters flew further to forage. In 2018, when they flew relatively short distances, the BAP levels were positively related to the levels of their physical activity (overall dynamic body acceleration; ODBA). We conclude that longer and less successful foraging may lead to increase oxidative stress, while successful foraging may mitigate the oxidative stress of foraging by providing dietary antioxidants. Our results highlight that the combined data from bio-logging and oxidative stress measurements aid in evaluating the underlying physiological costs of foraging behavior in wild animals.

Begging behavior as an honest signal of need and parent-offspring association during the postfledging dependency period

Honest signaling mechanisms can function to appropriate care to hungry offspring and avoid misdirected care of unrelated offspring. Begging, the behavior by which offspring solicit food and parental care, may be an honest signaling mechanism for need, as well as association of parents and offspring. Roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) exhibit prolonged parental care during the postbreeding staging period, offering an ideal system in which to study begging as an honest signaling mechanism. We conducted focal sampling during two premigratory staging seasons (2014 and 2015) at Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts, USA to determine whether postfledging tern begging behavior was an honest signal for need and parent-offspring association. Based on honest signaling theory, we expected begging behavior to be highest during times of high perceived need, and we expected to see a decrease in begging behavior as young terns became increasingly independent of the care-giving parent. Also, we predicted that young terns would be more likely to beg at parents than nonparents. We found that young roseate terns begged at their parents more often than nonparents; however, they did not always beg at parents. Model predictions of begging probability showed a linear relationship between begging and time of day and date of season, such that begging increased with time of day and decreased with date of season, respectively. Our results provide evidence for honest parent-offspring interactions and are inconsistent with parent-offspring conflict theory but suggest that begging may play a complex role in postfledging parent-offspring interactions.

OPEN RESEARCH BADGES

This article has been awarded Open Data, Open materials Badges. All materials and data are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2656718.

Individual differences in heart rate reveal a broad range of autonomic phenotypes in a free-living seabird population

Animals in the same population consistently differ in their physiology and behaviour, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. As the autonomic nervous system regulates wide-ranging physiological functions, many of these phenotypic differences may be generated by autonomic activity. We investigated for the first time in a free-living animal population (the streaked shearwater, Calonectris leucomelas, a long-lived seabird) whether individuals consistently differ in autonomic activity, over time and across contexts. We repeatedly recorded electrocardiograms from individual shearwaters, and from heart rate and heart rate variability quantified sympathetic activity, which drives the 'fight-or-flight' response, and parasympathetic activity, which promotes 'rest-and-digest' processes. We found a broad range of autonomic phenotypes that persisted even across years: heart rate consistently differed among individuals during periods of stress and non-stress and these differences were driven by parasympathetic activity, thus identifying the parasympathetic rest-and-digest system as a central mechanism that can drive broad phenotypic variation in natural animal populations.

Dominant Parasympathetic Modulation of Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability in a Wild-Caught Seabird

Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) provide noninvasive measures of the relative activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which promotes self-maintenance and restoration, and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which prepares an animal for danger. The PNS decreases HR, whereas the SNS increases HR. The PNS and SNS also contribute to oscillations in heartbeat intervals at different frequencies, producing HRV. HRV promotes resilience and adjustment capacity in the organism to intrinsic and extrinsic changes. Measuring HRV can reveal the condition and emotional state of animals, including aspects of their stress physiology. Until now, the functioning of the PNS and SNS and their relationship with other physiological systems have been studied almost exclusively in humans. In this study, we tested their influence on HR and HRV for the first time in a wild-caught seabird, the streaked shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas). We analyzed electrocardiograms collected from birds carrying externally attached HR loggers and that received injections that pharmacologically blocked the PNS, the SNS, or both, as well as those that received a saline (sham) injection or no injection (control). The PNS strongly dominated modulation of HR and also HRV across all frequencies, whereas the SNS contributed only slightly to low-frequency oscillations. The saline injection itself acted as a stressor, causing a dramatic drop in PNS activity in HRV and an increase in HR, though PNS activity continued to dominate even during acute stress. Dominant PNS activity is expected for long-lived species, which should employ physiological strategies that minimize somatic deterioration coming from stress.