Individual variation in spatial memory performance in wild mountain chickadees from different elevations

Croston, Rebecca; Kozlovsky, Dovid Y.; Branch, Carrie L.; Parchman, Thomas L.; Bridge, Eli S.; Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.10.015

Cited by 74 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This indicates that hens avoided returning to the nest when ambient light conditions were low. At least two factors may contribute to this pattern: (a) nests may be difficult to find in low‐light conditions, because birds often use visual spatial cues to return to specific locations (e.g., food resources; Croston et al, ) and nest relocation for waterfowl likely relies on visual spatial cues, and/or (b) hens may avoid excess activity near their nests at night, when risk of mammalian nest depredation is highest (Croston, Ackerman, et al, ). In Suisun Marsh, a large proportion of duck nest depredation by mammals occurs shortly after sunset (Croston, Ackerman, et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks

Croston

Hartman

Herzog

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Nest attendance is an important determinant of avian reproductive success, and identifying factors that influence the frequency and duration of incubation recesses furthers our understanding of how incubating birds balance their needs with those of their offspring. We characterized the frequency and timing (start time, end time, and duration) of incubation recesses for mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and gadwall (Mareca strepera) hens breeding in Suisun Marsh, California, USA, and examined the influences of day of year, ambient temperature at the nest, incubation day, and clutch size on recess frequency and timing using linear mixed models. Mallard, on average, took more recesses per day (1.69 ± 0.80, mean ± standard deviation) than did gadwall (1.39 ± 0.69), and 45% of mallard nest‐days were characterized by two recesses, while only 27% of gadwall nest‐days were characterized by two recesses. Mallard morning recesses started at 06:14 ± 02:46 and lasted 106.11 ± 2.01 min, whereas mallard afternoon recesses started at 16:39 ± 02:11 and lasted 155.39 ± 1.99 min. Gadwall morning recesses started at 06:30 ± 02:46 and lasted 91.28 ± 2.32 min, and gadwall afternoon recesses started at 16:31 ± 01:57 and lasted 192.69 ± 1.89 min. Mallard and gadwall started recesses earlier in the day with increasing ambient temperature, but later in the day as the season progressed. Recess duration decreased as the season progressed and as clutch size increased, and increased with ambient temperature at the nest. The impending darkness of sunset appeared to be a strong cue for ending a recess and returning to the nest, because hens returned to their nests earlier than expected when recesses were expected to end after sunset. Within hens, the timing of incubation recesses was repeatable across incubation days and was most repeatable for mallard afternoon recesses and on days in which hens took only one recess. Hens were most likely to be away from nests between 04:00 and 07:00 and between 16:00 and 19:00; therefore, investigators should search for nests between 07:00 and 16:00. Our analyses identified important factors influencing incubation recess timing in dabbling ducks and have important implications for nest monitoring programs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks

Croston

Hartman

Herzog

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…This may be an important and widespread, but as yet overlooked, source of postzygotic reproductive isolation. One additional goal of future studies should be to evaluate the degree to which hybrids display these deficiencies in their natural environments (sensu Croston et al 2016). Given the widespread nature of hybridization (Mallet 2005), examining potential behavioral sources of postzygotic isolation is paramount for a complete understanding of the speciation process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid chickadees are deficient in learning and memory

et al. 2018

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Identifying the phenotypes underlying postzygotic reproductive isolation is crucial for fully understanding the evolution and maintenance of species. One potential postzygotic isolating barrier that has rarely been examined is learning and memory ability in hybrids. Learning and memory are important fitness-related traits, especially in scatter-hoarding species, where accurate retrieval of hoarded food is vital for winter survival. Here, we test the hypothesis that learning and memory ability can act as a postzygotic isolating barrier by comparing these traits among two scatter-hoarding songbird species, black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis), and their naturally occurring hybrids. In an outdoor aviary setting, we find that hybrid chickadees perform significantly worse on an associative learning spatial task and are worse at solving a novel problem compared to both parental species. Deficiencies in learning and memory abilities could therefore contribute to postzygotic reproductive isolation between chickadee species. Given the importance of learning and memory for fitness, our results suggest that these traits may play an important, but as yet overlooked, role in postzygotic reproductive isolation.

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“…In addition, several of these phenotypic differences between high and low elevation chickadees have been documented over multiple years despite large climatic variation among these years [32,54]. If these phenotypes have even moderate heritability, this variation would be consistent with local adaptation, as migrants moving from low to high elevations are likely to experience decreased fitness owing to inferior memory ability [19,32] and assortative mating [22], while migrants moving from high to low elevations are likely to experience decreased fitness owing to their low social dominance status [39]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While there are no direct estimates of heritability for such cognitive phenotypes, work in mammals suggests that spatial memory ( h 2 = 0.32–0.54) [33–36] and hippocampal volume ( h 2 = 0.29–0.95) [37,38] are moderately to highly heritable. In addition, the elevation-related differences we have documented in mountain chickadees have been found in juvenile birds prior to their first winter and, therefore, prior to the largest climate-related mortality event, further suggesting that differences found in spatial ability and hippocampus morphology may be heritable and capable of responding to selection [32]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

Branch¹,

Jahner²,

Kozlovsky³

et al. 2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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Montane habitats are characterized by predictably rapid heterogeneity along elevational gradients and are useful for investigating the consequences of environmental heterogeneity for local adaptation and population genetic structure. Food-caching mountain chickadees inhabit a continuous elevation gradient in the Sierra Nevada, and birds living at harsher, high elevations have better spatial memory ability and exhibit differences in male song structure and female mate preference compared to birds inhabiting milder, low elevations. While high elevation birds breed, on average, two weeks later than low elevation birds, the extent of gene flow between elevations is unknown. Despite phenotypic variation and indirect evidence for local adaptation, population genetic analyses based on 18 073 single nucleotide polymorphisms across three transects of high and low elevation populations provided no evidence for genetic differentiation. Analyses based on individual genotypes revealed no patterns of clustering, pairwise estimates of genetic differentiation (FST, Nei's D) were very low, and AMOVA revealed no evidence for genetic variation structured by transect or by low and high elevation sites within transects. In addition, we found no consistent evidence for strong parallel allele frequency divergence between low and high elevation sites within the three transects. Large elevation-related phenotypic variation may be maintained by strong selection despite gene flow and future work should focus on the mechanisms underlying such variation.

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Individual variation in spatial memory performance in wild mountain chickadees from different elevations

Cited by 74 publications

References 25 publications

Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks

Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks

Hybrid chickadees are deficient in learning and memory

Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

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