Predation risk and the cost of being fat

Gosler, Andrew; Greenwood, Jeremy J. D.; Perrins, Christopher M.

doi:10.1038/377621a0

Cited by 365 publications

(271 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The above decline in body mass is in contrast to the situation among British passerines where reduced predation pressure by sparrowhawks (A. nisus) in woodlands was followed by a body mass increase (and, when the sparrowhawk population recovered, body mass decreased to the previous level) (Gosler & Greenwood 1995) rather than a decrease as observed here. The di¡erence in the trends in body mass between the two countries may be explained by two facts: (i) only one (the Sardinian warbler) of the species studied here inhabits woodland and (ii) the sparrowhawk is a rare summer breeder in Israel and other avian predators of birds are rare in Israel (Shirihai 1996).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 94%

Global warming and body mass decline in Israeli passerine birds

Yom‐Tov

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

157

125

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Global warming may a¡ect the physiology, distributions, phenology and adaptations of plants and animals. In Israel, minimum summer temperatures increased by an average of 0.26 8C per decade during the second half of the 20th century. Bergmann's rule predicts that, in warm-blooded animals, races from warm regions are smaller than races from cold regions. Numerous studies have reported general correlations between body mass in fossil animals and independently established palaeoclimatic changes from various parts of the world in accordance with this rule. Using museum specimens, I tested the prediction that the body mass and tarsus length of ¢ve resident passerine species in Israel declined between 1950 and 1999. The body mass of four species (the graceful warbler Prinia gracilis, the house sparrow Passer domesticus, the yellow-vented bulbul Pycnonotus xanthopygos and the Sardinian warbler Sylvia melanocephala, but not of the crested lark Galerida cristata) declined signi¢cantly during this period. Tarsus length also declined signi¢cantly during this period for two species (the graceful warbler and the house sparrow). Body condition (body mass-to-tarsus length ratio) decreased in the Sardinian warbler, the yellow-vented bulbul and the crested lark. It is suggested that the above declines in body mass and tarsus length are due to global warming and also in accordance with Bergmann's rule. The above explanation does not exclude the possibility that other factors, such as a decrease in food availability, contributed to the decline in body mass. These declines may have serious implications for community structure and competition among bird species and may a¡ect the survival of small passerines.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 94%

Global warming and body mass decline in Israeli passerine birds

Yom‐Tov

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

157

125

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“…3e), are also consistent with a structured distribution, and refute the idea that individuals regularly switch between offshore and nearshore areas. That nearshore foragers had lower API than the ones further from shore may be because these individuals respond to the higher predation danger by reducing body mass (mass-dependent predation risk; Carrascal & Polo, 1999;Gosler, Greenwood, & Perrins, 1995;Lima, 1986), just as we found in an indoor experiment with red knots (van den Hout et al, 2010). Yet, we cannot exclude the possibility that their low APIs reflect a hunger state caused by foraging constraints (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Interference from adults forces young red knots to forage for longer and in dangerous places

et al. 2014

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“…Sparrowhawks are the main avian predator of birds in Britain (Newton 1986) and frequently eat great tits (Cresswell 1995). Sparrowhawk density (Gosler et al 1995) as well as their presence or absence experimentally (Gentle & Gosler 2001;MacLeod et al 2005b) has been shown to affect the body mass of great tits.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Great tit (Parus major) mass has been to shown to decrease with decreased starvation risk (Gosler 1996;Gosler & Carruthers 1999), increased predator abundance (Gosler et al 1995) and increased predator attack rate (Gentle & Gosler 2001), and recent papers have established that great tits can show both mass gain (MacLeod & Gosler 2006) and loss (MacLeod et al 2005b) in response to predation risk, which is likely to be dependent on environmental conditions (MacLeod et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How climate change might influence the starvation–predation risk trade-off response

2009

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Climate change within the UK will affect winter starvation risk because higher temperatures reduce energy budgets and are likely to increase the quality of the foraging environment. Mass regulation in birds is a consequence of the starvation -predation risk trade-off: decreasing starvation risk because of climate change should decrease mass, but this will be countered by the effects of predation risk, because high predation risk has a negative effect on mass when foraging conditions are poor and a positive effect on mass when foraging conditions are good. We tested whether mass regulation in great tits (Parus major) across the UK was related to temporal changes in starvation risk (winter temperature 1995 -2005) and spatial changes in predation risk (sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus abundance). As predicted, great tits carried less mass during later, warmer, winters, demonstrating that starvation risk overall has decreased. Also, the effects of predation risk interacted with the effects of temperature (as an index of foraging conditions), so that in colder winters higher sparrowhawk abundance led to lower mass, whereas in warmer, later, winters higher sparrowhawk abundance led to higher mass. Mass regulation in a small bird species may therefore provide an index of how environmental change is affecting the foraging environment.

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Predation risk and the cost of being fat

Cited by 365 publications

References 6 publications

Global warming and body mass decline in Israeli passerine birds

Global warming and body mass decline in Israeli passerine birds

Interference from adults forces young red knots to forage for longer and in dangerous places

How climate change might influence the starvation–predation risk trade-off response

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