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opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Long-term consequences of high incubation temperature in a wild bird population

Because incubation by birds is energetically costly, parents frequently trade off investment in incubation against self-maintenance. This can be manifested by a reduction in incubation temperature, which comes at high somatic costs for nestlings. The extent to which these costs constrain fitness is poorly understood. We incubated wild blue tit clutches at three biologically relevant temperatures and subsequently recorded winter survival and survival to the breeding season. Fledglings from the coldest treatment (35.0°C) survived less well than other fledglings, but the proportion of winter and breeding survivors did not differ significantly between treatments. However, survival probability in both seasons increased with body mass at fledging in birds from low and mid incubation temperatures, but decreased with fledging body mass in the high-temperature treatment. Mid-temperature nestlings were heavier as adults, weighing 7% more than low- and high-temperature survivors. Thus, high incubation temperature can be beneficial in the short term, but costs of accelerated embryonic development may equal those of protracted development in the long term. Such hidden consequences of faster development could maintain natural selection for average incubation temperature.

opencc-zeroSep 2019View details →

Data from: Exploratory behavior undergoes genotype-age interactions in a wild bird

Animal personality traits are often heritable and plastic at the same time. Indeed, behaviors that reflect an individual's personality can respond to environmental factors or change with age. To date, little is known regarding personality changes during a wild animals' lifetime and even less about stability in heritability of behavior across ages. In this study, we investigated age‐related changes in the mean and in the additive genetic variance of exploratory behavior, a commonly used measure of animal personality, in a wild population of great tits. Heritability of exploration is reduced in adults compared to juveniles, with a low genetic correlation across these age classes. A random regression animal model confirmed the occurrence of genotype–age interactions (G×A) in exploration, causing a decrease in additive genetic variance before individuals become 1 year old, and a decline in cross‐age genetic correlations between young and increasingly old individuals. Of the few studies investigating G×A in behaviors, this study provides rare evidence for this phenomenon in an extensively studied behavior. We indeed demonstrate that heritability and cross‐age genetic correlations in this behavior are not stable over an individual's lifetime, which can affect its potential response to selection. Because G×A is likely to be common in behaviors and have consequences for our understanding of the evolution of animal personality, more attention should be turned to this phenomenon in the future work.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Individual variation in winter supplementary food consumption and its consequences for reproduction in wild birds.

The provision of wild birds with supplementary food has increased substantially over recent decades. While it is assumed that provisioning birds is beneficial, supplementary feeding can have detrimental 'carry-over' effects on reproductive traits. Due to difficulties in monitoring individual feeding behaviour, assessing how individuals within a population vary in their exploitation of supplementary food resources has been limited. Quantifying individual consumption of supplementary food is necessary to understand the operation of carry-over effects at the individual level. We used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and automated feeders to estimate individual consumption of supplementary winter food in a large wild population of great tits Parus major and blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus. Using these data, we identified demographic factors that explained individual variation in levels of supplementary food consumption. We also tested for carry-over effects of supplementary food consumption on recruitment, reproductive success and a measure of survival. Individual variation in consumption of supplementary food was explained by differences between species, ages, sexes and years. Individuals were consistent across time in their usage of supplementary resources. We found no strong evidence that the extent of supplementary food consumption directly influenced subsequent fitness parameters. Such effects may instead result from supplementary food influencing population demographics by enhancing the survival and subsequent breeding of less competitive individuals, which reduce average breeding parameters and increase density-dependent competition. Carry-over effects of supplementary feeding are not universal and may depend upon the temporal availability of the food provided. Our study demonstrates how RFID systems can be used to examine individual-level behaviour with minimal effects on fitness.

FIGURE 5. A in Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) from wild birds in southern Vietnam, with descriptions of two new species

FIGURE 5. A, Holotype male of Brueelia binhchauensis. B, Paratype female of Brueelia binhchauensis. C, Holotype male of Brueelia malacocincla. D, Paratype female of Brueelia malacocincla. Scale = 0.50 mm for all figures.

FIGURE 3 in Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) from wild birds in southern Vietnam, with descriptions of two new species

FIGURE 3. Brueelia malacocincla: A, dorso-ventral view of male. B, dorso-ventral view of female. Scales = 0.50 mm for both figures.

FIGURE 4 in Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) from wild birds in southern Vietnam, with descriptions of two new species

FIGURE 4. Brueelia malacocincla: A, male genitalia. B, dorso-ventral view of head of male. C, dorsal view of male terminalia. D, ventral view of female terminalia. Scales = 0.10 mm for all figures.

FIGURE 1 in Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) from wild birds in southern Vietnam, with descriptions of two new species

FIGURE 1. Brueelia binhchauensis: A, dorso-ventral view of male. B, dorso-ventral view of female. Scales = 0.50 mm for both figures.

FIGURE 2 in Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) from wild birds in southern Vietnam, with descriptions of two new species

FIGURE 2. Brueelia binhchauensis: A, male genitalia. B, dorso-ventral view of head of male. C, dorsal view of male terminalia. D, ventral view of female terminalia. Scales = 0.10 mm for all figures.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

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Supplementary material from "Utilising citizen science data to rapidly assess changing associations between wild birds and avian influenza outbreaks in poultry."

Stephen H. Vickers, Jayna Raghwani, Ashley C. Banyard, Ian H. Brown, Guillaume Fournie and Sarah C. Hill

opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Data for sperm numbers as a paternity guard in a wild bird

Sperm competition is thought to impose strong selection on males to produce competitive ejaculates to outcompete rival males under competitive mating conditions. Our understanding of how different sperm traits influence fertilization success, however, remains limited, especially in wild populations. Recent literature highlights the importance of incorporating multiple ejaculate traits and pre-copulatory sexually selected traits in analyses aimed at understanding how selection acts on sperm traits. However, variation in a male's ability to gain fertilization success may also depend upon a range of social and ecological factors that determine the opportunity for mating events both within and outside of the social pair-bond. Here, we test for an effect of sperm quantity and sperm size on male reproductive success in the red-back fairy-wren (Malurus melanocephalus) while simultaneously accounting for pre-copulatory sexual selection and potential socio-ecological correlates of male mating success. We found that sperm number (i.e., cloacal protuberance volume), but not sperm morphology, was associated with reproductive success in male red-backed fairy-wrens. Most notably, males with large numbers of sperm available for copulation achieved greater within-pair paternity success. Our results suggest that males use large sperm numbers as a defensive strategy to guard within-pair paternity success in a system where there is a high risk of sperm competition and female control of copulation. Finally, our work highlights the importance of accounting for socio-ecological factors that may influence male mating opportunities when examining the role of sperm traits in determining male reproductive success.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Interaction of diet and habitat predicts Toxoplasma gondii infection rates in wild birds at a global scale

Aim: Free-ranging wildlife are valuable sentinels for zoonotic, multi-host pathogens, and novel insight on parasite transmission patterns is possible through a macroecological approach. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan capable of infecting all warm-blooded animals, including humans, primarily through a free-living oocyst and/or tissue cyst life-stage. Anthropogenic disturbance is facilitating the spread of T. gondii, making it critical to understand the general ecological and life history drivers of T. gondii infections in wild birds, which are important intermediate hosts. Our goal was to determine how habitat (terrestrial vs. aquatic), dietary trophic level and scavenging behaviour influence T. gondii infection prevalence in wild birds on a global scale. Location: Global Time period: 1952-2017 Major taxa studied: Birds Methods: Our analysis used the serological, bioassay and molecular prevalence data of T. gondii in avian species compiled from 81 studies conducted worldwide and encompassing 24,344 individuals from 393 avian species from 84 families. Results: We show that at a global scale, trophic level and habitat significantly interact to influence T. gondii prevalence in avian intermediate hosts. In the terrestrial environment, T. gondii prevalence increases with trophic level, consistent with predominant tissue cyst transmission. The highest prevalence was in terrestrial omnivores, which may reflect their synanthropic foraging behaviour. In aquatic species, prevalence was more consistent across trophic levels, but high prevalence in aquatic herbivores and insectivores reflects significant waterborne exposure to oocysts. Contrary to our predictions, generalized scavenging per se was not associated with increased prevalence. Main conclusions: This study highlights the value of comparing pathogen prevalence among multiple ecological guilds and ecosystem types for a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of generalist pathogens, such as T. gondii. Increased effort is needed to reduce T. gondii spillover from the domestic cat cycle into wildlife populations.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

High MHC diversity confers no advantage for phenotypic quality and reproductive performance in a wild bird

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) encode antigen binding molecules and are an integral part of the acquired immune response of vertebrates. In general, high individual MHC diversity is expected to increase fitness by broadening the spectrum of pathogens recognized by the immune system, in accordance with the heterozygote advantage mechanism. On the other hand, the optimality hypothesis assumes that individuals with optimal (intermediate), rather than maximum diversity of the MHC will achieve the highest fitness because of inherent costs associated with expressing diverse MHC alleles. Here, we tested for associations between individual diversity of the MHC class I and class II genes (binding antigens of intra- and extra-cellular pathogens, respectively) and a range of fitness-related traits (condition, ornament expression and reproduction) in an urban population of the Eurasian coot Fulica atra. Contrary to our expectation, we found that high within-individual allelic diversity of MHC genes (both class I and II) was associated with poorer condition (lower blood haemoglobin concentrations), weaker expression of the putative ornament (smaller frontal shield), later onset of breeding and smaller clutches. An analysis of functional MHC allele clusters (supertypes) provided further support for negative associations of MHC diversity with phenotypic quality and reproductive performance, but most of these relationships could not be explained by the presence of specific maladaptive supertypes. Finally, we found little empirical support for the optimality hypothesis in the Eurasian coot. Our results suggest that the costs of high MHC diversity outweighed any benefits associated with broad MHC repertoire, which could be driven by depauperate pathogen diversity in an urban landscape. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies providing consistent evidence for negative associations of MHC diversity with a range of fitness-related traits in a natural avian population.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

The OpenFeeder: a flexible automated RFID feeder to measure inter and intraspecies differences in cognitive and behavioral performance in wild birds

Understanding the ecology and evolution of personality and cognition requires the development of new tools to measure individual and species differences in behavioral and cognitive performances in wild populations. Furthermore, such tools should facilitate collection of large sample sizes, evaluate the repeatability of measured traits and allow direct comparison of species performances across a variety of behavioural tasks. Here we present a RFID-based feeder (OpenFeeder) designed to run visual cognitive tasks in wild animals. We illustrate the flexibility of the tool showing performances of three wild passerine species (Parus major, Cyanistes caeruleus and Poecile palustris) in an associative learning task. We recorded performances of a large number of individuals (>300) in the wild and showed both inter and intraspecific differences in associative learning. We also found moderate to high repeatability in individual differences in associative learning in each species. We show that the OpenFeeder is a flexible tool to record performance in multiple cognitive and behavioural tasks in free ranging animals across a variety of passerine species. The design, firmware, and software are open source to facilitate use in a wide variety of species and thus allow continuous improvement of the system and development of new behavioural and cognitive tasks. In doing so, we hope that this tool will be used by a large community of cognitive ecologists and comparative psychologists for both within and across species studies. Furthermore, our system should facilitate replication of results across populations along large-scale environmental gradients to improve our understanding of the role ecology plays in the evolution of cognitive traits.

AI results complementing the 2021 Annual Report on surveillance for Avian Influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union - Malta

This dataset contains the results of the EU co-funded surveillance activities conducted in 2021, which consisted of: <ul> <li>Serological surveys to monitor the circulation of AIV subtypes H5 and H7 in poultry (active surveillance). These surveys should preferentially target poultry species or production systems with increased risk for introduction of avian influenza (AI).</li> <li>Passive surveillance aiming at the virological detection of AI in wild birds found dead or moribund</li> </ul>

AI results complementing the 2021 Annual Report on surveillance for Avian Influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union - Czechia

AI results complementing the 2021 Annual Report on surveillance for Avian Influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union - Austria

AI results complementing the 2021 Annual Report on surveillance for Avian Influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union - Switzerland

This dataset contains the results of the surveillance activities conducted in 2021, which consisted of: <ul> <li>Serological surveys to monitor the circulation of AIV subtypes H5 and H7 in poultry (active surveillance). These surveys should preferentially target poultry species or production systems with increased risk for introduction of avian influenza (AI).</li> <li>Passive surveillance aiming at the virological detection of AI in wild birds found dead or moribund</li> </ul>

Annual report on surveillance for avian influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union in 2021 – high-quality maps

Here you can find the high-quality maps published in the ‘Annual report on surveillance for avian influenza in poultry and wild birds in Member States of the European Union in 2021' by EFSA.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Inferring epidemiologic dynamics from viral evolution: 2014–2015 Eurasian/North American highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses exceed transmission threshold, R0 = 1, in wild birds and poultry in North America

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is a multi-host pathogen with lineages that pose health risks for domestic birds, wild birds, and humans. One mechanism of intercontinental HPAIV spread is through wild bird reservoirs and wild birds were the likely sources of a Eurasian (EA) lineage HPAIV into North America in 2014. The introduction resulted in several reassortment events with North American (NA) lineage low pathogenic avian influenza viruses and the reassortant EA/NA H5N2 went on to cause one of the largest HPAIV poultry outbreaks in North America. We evaluated three hypotheses about novel HPAIV introduced into wild and domestic bird hosts: (i) transmission of novel HPAIVs in wild birds was restricted by mechanisms associated with highly-pathogenic phenotypes; (ii) the HPAIV poultry outbreak was not self-sustaining and required viral input from wild birds; (iii) reassortment of the EA H5N8 generated reassortant EA/NA AIVs with a fitness advantage over fully Eurasian lineages in North American wild birds. We used a time-rooted phylodynamic model that explicitly incorporated viral population dynamics with evolutionary dynamics to estimate the basic reproductive number (R0) and viral migration among host types in domestic and wild birds, as well as between the EA H5N8 and EA/NA H5N2 in wild birds. We did not find evidence to support hypothesis (i) or (ii) as our estimates of the transmission parameters suggested that the HPAIV outbreak met or exceeded the threshold for persistence in wild birds (R0 > 1) and poultry (R0 ≈ 1) with minimal estimated transmission among host types. There was also no evidence to support hypothesis (iii) because R0 values were similar among EA H5N8 and EA/NA H5N2 in wild birds. Our results suggest that this novel HPAIV and reassortments did not encounter any transmission barriers sufficient to prevent persistence when introduced to wild or domestic birds.