Differential rates of offspring provisioning in Gould’s petrels: are better feeders better breeders?
Terence W. O’Dwyer A B D , William A. Buttemer A and David M. Priddel CA Institute for Conservation Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
B Present address: Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
C Department of Environment and Conservation NSW, PO Box 1967, Hurstville, NSW 2220, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: twodwyer@ucdavis.edu
Australian Journal of Zoology 55(3) 155-160 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO07005
Submitted: 29 January 2007 Accepted: 11 May 2007 Published: 28 June 2007
Abstract
Procellariiformes (albatrosses and petrels) must accumulate substantial energy reserves to sustain them while incubating their single egg. They then produce a chick that is often more than 130% of their own body mass. Thus, despite the variable nature of resource availability in the marine environment, successful reproduction requires a considerable increase in foraging rates. Birds that are better foragers are, therefore, likely to be better parents. As surrogates of foraging ability, we assessed two parental traits that are separated temporally over the breeding season, body condition during incubation and provisioning performance, in Gould’s petrel (Pterodroma leucoptera). Although parental condition did not influence hatching success, we found significant positive correlations between the average body condition of a breeding pair and both the growth rate of chicks (g day–1) and the body condition of chicks at peak mass. Provisioning rate also correlated positively with chick condition. Chick condition was positively correlated with haemoglobin concentration [Hb] at peak mass, which was positively correlated with [Hb] at fledging. Because the probability of survival after fledging may be influenced by chick body condition and [Hb], the ability of parents to acquire additional resources for breeding is likely to be an important determinant of reproductive success.
Acknowledgements
This research was performed under New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service Scientific Licence No. B2208 and University of Wollongong Animal Ethics Licence No. AE00/15. This work was partly funded by a research grant from the Australian Research Council and with support from NSW NPWS. Comments by anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this manuscript are much appreciated.
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