Sexual selection based on egg colour: physiological models and egg discrimination experiments in a cavity-nesting bird |
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Authors: | Jesús M Avilés Juan J Soler Nathan S Hart |
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Institution: | 1.Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva,Estación Experimental de Zonas áridas (CSIC),Almería,Spain;2.School of Animal Biology,The University of Western Australia,Perth,Australia |
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Abstract: | It has been proposed that the blue-green bird egg colourations of many avian species may constitute a sexually selected female
signal that males can use to modulate their parental investment. A fundamental untested assumption for the validation of this
hypothesis is that males can accurately assess differences in the colour of eggs. A recent review suggests that this could
be particularly problematic when egg clutches were located within a dimly lit nest cavity, due to limitations of the visual
system in low light conditions. Here, we first used a photoreceptor noise-limited model of colour discrimination ability that
accounts for visual performance under low light conditions to study whether a typical cavity-nesting passerine, the spotless
starling Sturnus unicolor, can discriminate their eggs under the ambient illumination in their nest-holes. Secondly, we tested the validity of model
predictions with behavioural data collected in two egg discrimination experiments performed in this species. Estimated egg
detectability depended entirely on model assumptions about visual limitations linked to light intensity. Starlings would not
be able to discriminate egg differences in their nests if the model was based on the assumption that light intensity limited
detectability, whereas they could potentially perceive as different many possible pairwise clutch comparisons if the model
assumption was that light intensity did not limit detectability. Results of behavioural experiments fitted the prediction
of the visual model where light intensity did not limit detectability. Our results suggest that photoreceptor noise-limited
colour models based on stimulation of single photoreceptors cannot, at present, be used to predict egg discrimination ability
in spotless starlings under low light conditions. Future studies aiming to test egg discrimination constraints in the frame
of the sexual selection hypothesis should therefore combine both modelling and behavioural experiments to determine which
are the components of the models that produce the mismatch with the behavioural conditions. |
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