Abstract
We measured basal metabolic rate (BMR), body mass, lean mass, and gizzard mass of captive red knots Calidriscanutusislandica maintained on a trout chow diet (soft‐texture, low ash and water content) for several years and then shifted to small mussels Mytilus edulis (hard‐texture, high ash and water content). During a 3‐week period of feeding on mussels, body mass, lean mass, and gizzard mass increased 7.3 g (+7%), 10.5 g (+12%), and 4.9 g (+213%), respectively, yet BMR decreased from 0.96 to 0.89 W (−8%). Under the new mussel regime, red knots must have reduced the metabolic intensity of some of the tissues. This suggests that the experimental red knots experienced the transition to a mussel diet as stressful and energy limiting, resulting in an energy‐saving strategy by reducing BMR in spite of hypertrophy of the gizzard and other organs.
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