Abstract
Dominance in socially foraging animals may be related to sex and to variation in individual quality. Individual quality may in turn reflect conditions during early development. We studied dominance in a cohort of adult European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, that had been subject to experimental manipulations of food supply and begging effort when they were nestlings. We measured dominance in two different contexts, contests over a food resource and relative position on a sloping perch, over the course of 3 weeks. Dominance in food contests was extremely stable over the 3 weeks and relative perch position somewhat stable. Males were dominant over females in contests over food and perched in higher positions. These sex differences were not explained by males' greater size or body weight. Food dominance and perch position were uncorrelated. Neither early life food supply nor early life begging effort affected food dominance; nor did an alternative measure of developmental stress, developmental telomere attrition. Birds that had been made to beg more as nestlings perched in higher positions than those that had begged less. Our results did not support the hypothesis that early life adversity leads to lower adult dominance rank in the context of feeding, and we suggest that relative perch position may have measured individual preference rather than competitive ability.
Highlights
Effects of early life adversity and sex on dominance in European starlings Tom Bedford, Caitlin Jade Oliver, Clare Andrews, Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle*
Our results did not support the hypothesis that early life adversity leads to lower adult dominance rank in the context of feeding, and we suggest that relative perch position may have measured individual preference rather than competitive ability
Birds, dominance has been shown to correlate with traits such as song repertoire size (Spencer, Buchanan, Goldsmith, & Catchpole, 2004); song repertoire size in turn has been shown to reflect developmental history, with more adverse histories leading to smaller song repertoires (Buchanan, Spencer, Goldsmith, & Catchpole, 2003; Nowicki, Searcy, & Peters, 2002)
Summary
Effects of early life adversity and sex on dominance in European starlings Tom Bedford, Caitlin Jade Oliver, Clare Andrews, Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle*. Our results did not support the hypothesis that early life adversity leads to lower adult dominance rank in the context of feeding, and we suggest that relative perch position may have measured individual preference rather than competitive ability. In recent studies in the European starling, Sturnus vulgaris, we have found that individuals that experience more early life adversity (due to competition during the nestling phase) show a number of behavioural differences in adulthood from those that experience less adversity They are less selective in what they eat (Bloxham, Bateson, Bedford, Brilot, & Nettle, 2014), and they tend to be hyperphagic and heavier for their skeletal size (Andrews et al, 2015). The reduced dietary selectivity might reflect a foraging strategy appropriate for subordinate individuals, which may be restricted to lower-preference food resources and at risk of displacement from feeding sites by dominants
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