RT journal article
T1 Does the use of nest materials in a ground-nesting bird result from a compromise between the risk of egg overheating and camouflage?
A1 Gómez, Jesús
A1 Liñán Cembrano, Gustavo
A1 Ramo, Cristina
A1 Castro Casas, Esperanza Macarena
A1 Pérez Hurtado de Mendoza, Alejandro
A1 Amat, Juan A.
A2 Biología
K1 Background matching
K1 Coloration
K1 Disruptive camouflage
K1 Rates of egg heating
K1 Thermal ecology
K1 Trade-off
AB Many studies addressing the use of nest materials by animals havefocused on only one factor to explain its function. However, theconsideration of more than one factor could explain the apparentlymaladaptive choice of nest materials that make nests conspicuous topredators. We experimentally tested whether there is a trade-off in theuse of nest materials between the risks of egg predation versusprotection from overheating. We studied the ground-nesting Kentishplover, Charadrius alexandrinus, in southern Spain. We addedmaterials differing in thermal properties and coloration to the nests,thus affecting rates of egg heating, nest temperature and camouflage.Before these manipulations, adults selected materials that were lighterthan the microhabitat, probably to buffer the risk of egg overheating.However, the adults did not keep the lightest experimental materials,probably because they reduced camouflage, and this could make thenests even more easily detectable to predators. In all nests, adultsremoved most of the experimental materials independently of theirproperties, so that egg camouflage returned to the original situationwithin a week of the experimental treatments. Although the thermalenvironment may affect the choice of nest materials by plovers,ambient temperatureswere not so high at our study site as to determinethe acceptance of the lightest experimental materials.
PB COMPANY BIOLOGISTS LTD
SN 2046-6390
YR 2019
FD 2019-12
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/22326
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/22326
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026