Parental conflict and blue egg coloration in a seabird |
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Authors: | Judith Morales Roxana Torres Alberto Velando |
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Institution: | 1. Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Facultade de Bioloxía, Universidade de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain 2. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Laboratorio de Conducta Animal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México DF, Mexico
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Abstract: | When both parents provide offspring care, equal sharing of costly parental duties may enhance reproductive success. This is
crucial for longlived species, where increased parental effort in current reproduction profoundly affects future reproduction.
Indication of reproductive value or willingness to invest in reproduction may promote matching responses by mates, thus reducing
the conflict over care. In birds with biparental care, blue-green eggshell color may function as a signal of reproductive
value that affects parental effort, as predicted by the signaling hypothesis of blue-green eggshell coloration. However, this
hypothesis has not been explored during incubation, when the potential stimulus of egg color is present, and has been little
studied in longlived birds. We experimentally studied if egg color affected incubation patterns in the blue-footed booby,
a longlived species with biparental care and blue eggs. We exchanged fresh eggs between nests of the same laying date and
recorded parental incubation effort on the following 4 days. Although egg color did not affect male effort, original eggshell
color was correlated with pair matching in incubation. Exchanged eggshell color did not affect incubation patterns. This suggests
that biliverdin-based egg coloration reflects female quality features that are associated with pair incubation effort or that
blue-footed boobies mate assortatively high-quality pairs incubating more colorful clutches. An intriguing possibility is
that egg coloration facilitates an equal sharing of incubation, the signal being functional only during a short period close
to laying. Results also suggest that indication of reproductive value reduces the conflict over care. |
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