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178 results for “great tit”
Data from: Sources of (co)variation in alternative siring routes available to male great tits (Parus major)
Males of socially monogamous species can increase their siring success via within-pair and extra-pair fertilizations. In this study, we focused on the different sources of (co)variation between these siring routes, and asked how each contributes to total siring success. We quantified the fertilization routes to siring success, as well as behaviors that have been hypothesized to affect siring success, over a five-year period for a wild population of great tits Parus major. We considered siring success and its fertilization routes as "interactive phenotypes" arising from phenotypic contributions of both members of the social pair. We show that siring success is strongly affected by the fecundity of the social (female) partner. We also demonstrate that a strong positive correlation between extra-pair fertilization success and paternity loss likely constrains the evolution of these two routes. Moreover, we show that more explorative and aggressive males had less extra-pair fertilizations, whereas more explorative females laid larger clutches. This study thus demonstrates that (co)variation in siring routes is caused by multiple factors not necessarily related to characteristics of males. We thereby highlight the importance of acknowledging the multi-level structure of male fertilization routes when studying the evolution of male mating strategies.
Data from: Innovative females are more promiscuous in great tits (Parus major)
Individual variation in the propensity to express innovative behaviors is increasingly recognized as ecologically and evolutionary significant. A growing number of studies show that more innovative individuals can realize higher breeding success, indicating that innovativeness may be important in mating decisions. Here we investigated whether male and female performance in innovative problem-solving tasks is linked to sexual selection via extra-pair mating behavior. We observed the problem-solving success of great tit (Parus major) pairs in 2 tasks at the nest, and related it to the occurrence of extra-pair paternity (EPP) in their broods. In a food-acquisition task, we found no difference in EPP among pairs in which the male solved, pairs in which the female solved, and unsuccessful pairs. In an obstacle-removal task that was solved almost exclusively by females, EPP was more frequent in broods of solver females than in broods of unsuccessful females. These results do not support the hypothesis that the social male's innovativeness influences the female's extra-pair mating behavior. Instead, they suggest that the female's infidelity covaries positively with her innovativeness. Furthermore, EPP was related to both parents' neophobia such that pairs of highly neophobic individuals were less likely to have EPP than pairs that contained at least one individual with low neophobia. These findings indicate that promiscuity is associated with certain behavioral phenotypes, suggesting that both innovativeness and novelty seeking may facilitate the investment into and/or the exposure to extra-pair mating attempts.
Data from: Great tits and the city: distribution of genomic diversity and gene-environment associations along an urbanization gradient
Urbanization is a growing concern challenging the evolutionary potential of wild populations by reducing genetic diversity and imposing new selection regimes affecting many key fitness traits. However, genomic footprints of urbanization have received little attention so far. Using RAD sequencing, we investigated the genome-wide effects of urbanization on neutral and adaptive genomic diversity in 140 adult great tits Parus major collected in locations with contrasted urbanization levels (from a natural forest to highly urbanized areas of a city (Montpellier, France). Heterozygosity was slightly lower in the more urbanized sites compared to the more rural ones. Low but significant effect of urbanization on genetic differentiation was found, at the site-level but not at the nest-level, indicative of the geographic scale of urbanization impact and of the potential for local adaptation despite gene flow. Gene-environment association tests identified numerous SNPs with small association scores to urbanization, distributed across the genome, from which a subset of 97 SNPs explained up to 81% of the variance in urbanization, overall suggesting a polygenic response to selection in the urban environment. These findings open stimulating perspectives for broader applications of high-resolution genomic tools on other cities and larger sample sizes to investigate the consistency of the effects of urbanization on the spatial distribution of genetic diversity and the polygenic nature of gene-urbanization association.
Data from: Proximity to roads, but not exposure to metal pollution, is associated with accelerated developmental telomere shortening in nestling great tits
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Comprehensively understanding the factors affecting physiology and fitness in urban wildlife requires concurrently considering multiple stressors. To this end, we simultaneously assessed how metal pollution and proximity to roads affect body condition and telomere shortening between days 8 and 15 of age in nestling great tits (<i>Parus major</i>), a common urban bird. We employed a repeated-measures sampling design to compare telomere shortening and body condition between nestlings from four urban study sites south of Antwerp, Belgium, which are located at different distances from a metal pollution point source. In addition, we explored associations between metal exposure and telomere dynamics on the individual level by measuring blood concentrations of five metals/metalloids, of which lead, copper and zinc were present at concentrations about the limit of detection. To assess whether roadway-associated stressors (e.g. noise and air pollution) might affect nestling condition and telomere shortening, we measured the proximity of nest boxes to roads. Metal exposure was not associated with nestling telomere length or body condition, despite elevated blood lead concentrations close to a metal pollution source (mean ± SE = 0.270 ± 0.095 µg/g wet weight at the most polluted study site), suggesting that nestlings may have some capacity to detoxify metals. However, nestlings from nest boxes near roads exhibited more telomere shortening between days 8 and 15 of age, and shorter telomeres at day 15. Nestlings in poorer condition also had shorter telomeres, but proximity to the road was unrelated to body condition. Thus, nutritional stress is unlikely to mediate the relationship between proximity to roads and telomere length. Rather, proximity to roads could have affected telomere shortening by exposing nestlings to air or noise pollution. Our study highlights that traffic-related pollution, which is implicated in human health problems, might also affect urban wildlife.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: Partner's age, not social environment, predicts extrapair paternity in wild great tits (Parus major)
An individual's fitness is not only influenced by its own phenotype, but by the phenotypes of interacting conspecifics. This is likely to be particularly true when considering fitness gains and losses caused by extrapair matings, as they depend directly on the social environment. While previous work has explored effects of dyadic interactions, limited understanding exists regarding how group-level characteristics of the social environment affect extrapair paternity (EPP) and cuckoldry. We use a wild population of great tits (Parus major) to examine how, in addition to the phenotypes of focal parents, two neighborhood-level traits – age and personality composition – predict EPP and cuckoldry. We used the well-studied trait "exploration behavior" as a measure of the reactive-proactive personality axis. Because breeding pairs inhabit a continuous "social landscape", we first established an ecologically relevant definition of a breeding "neighborhood" through genotyping parents and nestlings in a 51-ha patch of woodland and assessing the spatial predictors of EPP events. Using the observed decline in likelihood of EPP with increasing spatial separation between nests, we determined the relevant neighborhood boundaries, and thus the group phenotypic composition of an individual's neighborhood, by calculating the point at which the likelihood of EPP became negligible. We found no evidence that "social environment" effects (i.e. neighborhood age or personality composition) influenced EPP or cuckoldry. We did, however, find that a female's own age influenced the EPP of her social mate, with males paired to older females gaining more EPP, even when controlling for the social environment. These findings suggest that partner characteristics, rather than group phenotypic composition, influence mating activity patterns at the individual level.
Artificial Light at Night weakens body condition but does not negatively affect physiological markers of health in great tits.
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
FIGURE 4. a in Characterization of a secondary contact zone of the Great Tit Parus major and the Japanese Tit P. minor (Aves: Passeriformes) in Far Eastern Siberia with DNA markers.
FIGURE 4. a) Proportion of minor phenotypes plotted against geographic distances between the populations (with parameters, a = 1.0166, b = 0.1534, x = 5.7334, y = 0.0114, R2 = 0.9934), b) 0 0 proportion of minor mitochondrial haplotypes plotted against geographic distances (a = 1.0049, b = 0.1551, x = 0.5749, y = 0.0319, R2 = 0.9843) and c) proportion of individuals being assigned to 0 0 minor based on microsatellites plotted against geographic distances (a = 0.9616, b = 0.2167, x0 = 5.2785, y = 0.0166, R2 = 0.9928).
FIGURE 3 in Characterization of a secondary contact zone of the Great Tit Parus major and the Japanese Tit P. minor (Aves: Passeriformes) in Far Eastern Siberia with DNA markers.
FIGURE 3. Assignment probabilities for each individual to belong to major or minor cluster. Phenotypes of the individuals are shown above the graph. Individuals in bold are first generation migrants detected by GeneClass.
FIGURE 2 in Characterization of a secondary contact zone of the Great Tit Parus major and the Japanese Tit P. minor (Aves: Passeriformes) in Far Eastern Siberia with DNA markers.
FIGURE 2. Relative frequencies of alleles at the nine studied microsatellite loci for each population.
Telomere lengths of great tit nestlings in Latvia (2018-2019)
<p>This study deals with telomere lengths of 15-day-old great tit nestlings in two habitats: an old-growth mature unmanaged coniferous forest and a young-managed coniferous forest in 2018 in SE Latvia. Survival of nestlings at day 15 also was measured. </p>
Research disturbance negatively impacts incubation behaviour of female Great Tits
<p>The dataset includes the raw data and R scripts necessary to reproduce the analyses and figures explained in the manuscript "Research disturbance negatively impacts incubation behaviour of female Great Tits"<strong>.</strong></p> <p>This dataset includes:</p> <p>- README.docx: Complete explanation of the different raw data used for the statistical analyses, together with the link to the R script where data is analyzed. We recommend to read this document before diving into the data and scripts.</p> <p>- Project data & code: Two separate folders for raw data and code.</p>
Differences in feather structure between urban and forest great tits – constraint or adaptation?
<p>Urbanization is one of the strongest habitat transforming processes today that has resulted in changes in the ecological conditions for wild populations. In birds, the limitation of natural food sources and a warmer microclimate in cities can potentially influence the development and functioning of the plumage that may have important fitness consequences. Despite its potential significance, the plumage structure of urban birds are largely unexplored and it is unclear whether and how they respond to urban ecological processes such as different constraints and selection pressures. In this study, we compared several structural properties of contour, primary and tail feathers between two forest and two urban great tit <em>(Parus major)</em> populations. Our results show that the urban environment affects only a few structural properties of feathers and only in the plumage of first-year birds. We found that both the plumulaceous and the pennaceous parts of their contour feathers are longer and have lower barb density in the urban than in the forest habitat. We also found that the primaries of first-year birds have narrower rachis and higher barbule density in the cities than in the forests, but there were no differences in other wing feather traits and in any tail feather traits between habitats. We did not find differences in the feather structure of urban versus forest adult birds. The habitat differences in first-year birds may indicate nutritional constraints or the effects of the warmer microclimate of the urban environment. These differences seem to disappear completely in adulthood that can be explained by the selective mortality of first-year birds, or by adults being less sensitive than first-year birds to environmental effects during their molt.</p>
Data from: Endocrine phenotype, reproductive success and survival in the great tit, Parus major
A central goal in evolutionary ecology is to characterize and identify selection patterns on the optimal phenotype in different environments. Physiological traits, such as hormonal responses, provide important mechanisms by which individuals can adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. It is therefore expected that selection shapes hormonal traits, but the strength and the direction of selection on plastic hormonal signals are still under investigation. Here, we determined whether, and in which way, selection is acting on the hormones corticosterone and prolactin by characterizing endocrine phenotypes and their relationship with fitness in free-living great tits, Parus major. We quantified variation in circulating concentrations of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone and in prolactin during the prebreeding (March) and the breeding season (May) for two consecutive years, and correlated these with reproductive success (yearly fledgling number) and overwinter survival in female and male individuals. In both years, individuals with high baseline corticosterone concentrations in March had the highest yearly fledgling numbers; while in May, individuals with low baseline corticosterone had the highest yearly reproductive success. Likewise, individuals that displayed strong seasonal plasticity in baseline corticosterone concentrations (high in March and low in May) had the highest reproductive success in each year. Prolactin concentrations were not related to reproductive success, but were positively correlated to the proximity to lay. Between-year plasticity in stress-induced corticosterone concentrations of males was related to yearly variation in food abundance, but not to overall reproductive success. These findings suggest that seasonally alternating directional selection is operating on baseline corticosterone concentrations in both sexes. The observed between-year consistency in selection patterns indicates that a one-time hormone sample in a given season can allow the prediction of individual fitness.
Data from: Sex-specific responses to territorial intrusions in a communication network: evidence from radio-tagged great tits
Signals play a key role in the ecology and evolution of animal populations, influencing processes such as sexual selection and conflict resolution. In many species, sexually selected signals have a dual function: attracting mates and repelling rivals. Yet, to what extent males and females under natural conditions differentially respond to such signals remains poorly understood, due to a lack of field studies that simultaneously track both sexes. Using a novel spatial tracking system, we tested whether or not the spatial behavior of male and female great tits (Parus major) changes in relation to the response of a territorial male neighbor to an intruder. We tracked the spatial behavior of male and female great tits (N = 44), 1 hr before and 1 hr after simulating territory intrusions, employing automatized Encounternet radio-tracking technology. We recorded the spatial and vocal response of the challenged males and quantified attraction and repulsion of neighboring males and females to the intrusion site. We additionally quantified the direct proximity network of the challenged male. The strength of a male's vocal response to an intruder induced sex-dependent movements in the neighborhood, via female attraction and male repulsion. Stronger vocal responders were older and in better body condition. The proximity networks of the male vocal responders, including the number of sex-dependent connections and average time spent with connections, did not change directly following the intrusion. The effects on neighbor movements suggest that the strength of a male's vocal response can provide relevant social information to both the males and the females in the neighborhood, resulting in both sexes adjusting their spatial behavior in contrasting ways, while the social proximity network remained stable. Moreover, our study underlines the importance of the "silent" eavesdroppers within communication networks for studying the dual functioning and evolution of sexually selected signals.
Life-history trade-offs, density, lay date—not personality—explain multibroodedness in great tits
In various taxa, multibroodedness is a common breeding strategy. Life-history theory predicts that individuals can increase fitness by producing multiple broods within a season. Despite the apparent increase in the number of offspring parents might produce per season, not all individuals are multibrooded, suggesting a trade-off. We studied ecological and behavioral factors influencing the initiation of second clutches in great tits (Parus major), an optionally multibrooded bird species, by distinguishing two types of clutches: replacement vs. true second clutches, produced after failure vs. successful first breeding attempts, respectively. We predicted that lay date, density, and investment in first clutches would decrease the probability of initiating a second clutch, but that faster exploring behavioral types with a faster pace-of-life would be more likely to be multibrooded. The probability of initiating true second clutches varied negatively within-individuals with lay date and breeding density. The initiation of replacement clutches instead varied negatively among-individuals with lay date and density, suggesting non-random settlement of behavioral types across environments. Individuals were less likely to be multibrooded when producing many offspring from their first clutch, suggesting within-year reproductive trade-offs, similar to previous studies. No previous research has linked personality to multibroodedness; here we show that neither the repeatable nor the plastic part of an individual's exploratory behavior predicted multibroodedness. We confirmed our prediction that the resolution of trade-offs may occur either at the within- or among-individual level. Our research contributes to the understanding of life-history evolution in the wild by studying the mechanisms shaping multibroodedness within seasons. --
Figure 2 in The role of hatching asynchrony in brood size reduction of the great tit Parus major in a Mediterranean pine forest
Figure 2. Distribution of estimated age at time of death of nestlings in synchronous (asynchrony of 0 or 1 days, white bars) and asynchronous (asynchrony of 2 or more days, black bars) broods.
Figure 1 in The role of hatching asynchrony in brood size reduction of the great tit Parus major in a Mediterranean pine forest
Figure 1. Mean hatching asynchrony by five-day periods against laying date (vertical lines indicate range of values).
Egg covering in great tits and effects on pied flycatchers
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>This dataset contains data from experiments carried out in a woodland area and described in the paper: "T. Slagsvold, and Wiebe, K. L. (2021) "Egg covering in cavity nesting birds may prevent nest usurpation by other species." <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03045-w">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03045-w</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The experiments investigated a new hypothesis, namely that the cavity nesting birds, like titmice, cover their eggs when they leave the nest during the egg laying period to prevent usurpation of the cavity by other birds. We provided nest boxes in a woodland area and filmed great tit (<i>Parus major</i>)nests during the egg-laying period to study the behavior of the female. Then we presented prospecting male pied flycatchers (<i>Ficedula hypoleuca</i>) with a dyad of nest boxes, to study whether they hesitated to enter a box when the tit eggs were covered or not, depending on the size and depth of the box.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Main results of the experiments were that (1) during the egg-laying period, the female great tit spent bouts of highly variable length outside the nest box, from a few minutes to more than an hour. Therefore, when visiting a nest cavity, prospecting birds would have difficulty predicting whether an aggressive tit owner would soon return. (2) The pied flycatchers hesitated longer to enter a nest box with no visible tit eggs than a box with exposed eggs. (3) This was most evident for nest boxes with dark versus light interior paint, supporting the idea that better interior illumination makes prospecting birds more confident about entering an unfamiliar cavity.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: Great tits do not compensate over time for a radio-tag-induced reduction in escape-flight performance
<p>The use of biologging and tracking devices is widespread in avian behavioural and ecological studies. Carrying these devices rarely has major behavioural or fitness effects in the wild, yet it may still impact animals in more subtle ways, such as during high power demanding escape manoeuvres. Here, we tested whether or not great tits (Parus major) carrying a backpack radio-tag changed their body-mass or flight behaviour over time to compensate for the detrimental effect of carrying a tag. We tested 18 great tits, randomly assigned to a control (untagged) or one of two different types of a radio-tag as used in previous studies in the wild (0.9 g or 1.2 g; ~5% or ~6–7% of body mass, respectively), and determined their upward escape-flight performance 1, 7, 14, and 28 days-after-tagging. In between experiments, birds were housed in large free-flight aviaries. For each escape-flight, we used high-speed 3D videography to determine flight paths, escape-flight-speed, wingbeat frequency and actuator-disk-loading (ratio between the bird weight and aerodynamic thrust production capacity). Tagged birds flew upwards with lower escape-flight speeds, caused by an increased actuator-disk-loading. During the 28-day period, all groups slightly increased their body mass and their in-flight wingbeat frequency. In addition, during this period all groups of birds increased their escape-flight speed, but tagged birds did so at a lower rate than untagged birds. This suggests that birds may increase their escape flight performance through skill-learning, however, tagged birds still remained slower than controls. Our findings suggest that tagging a songbird can have a prolonged effect on the performance of rapid flight manoeuvres. Given the absence of tag-effects on reproduction and survival in most songbird radio-tagging studies, tagged birds in the wild might adjust their risk-taking behaviour to avoid performing rapid flight manoeuvres.</p>
Great tit predation on colour morphs of the wood tiger moth at different relative frequencies
<p>Polymorphic warning signals in aposematic systems are enigmatic because predator learning should favor the most common form, creating positive frequency-dependent survival. However, many populations exhibit variation in warning signals. There are various selective mechanisms which can counter positive frequency-dependent selection and lead to temporal or spatial warning signal diversification. Examining these mechanisms and their effects requires first confirming whether the most common morphs are favored at both local and regional scales. Empirical examples of this are uncommon and often include potentially confounding factors such as a lack of knowledge of predator identity and behavior. We tested how bird behavior influences the survival of three coexisting morphs of the aposematic wood tiger moth <i>Arctia plantaginis </i>offered to a sympatric predator (great tits, <i>Parus major</i>) at different frequencies.<i> </i>We found that although positive frequency-dependent selection is present, its strength is affected by predator characteristics and varying prey profitability. These results highlight the need to understand predator foraging in natural communities with variable prey defences, in order to better examine how behavioral interactions shape evolutionary outcomes.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.