| Literature DB >> 31098339 |
Georgine Szipl1,2, Alina Loth1,3, Claudia A F Wascher1,4, Josef Hemetsberger1,2, Kurt Kotrschal1,2, Didone Frigerio1,2.
Abstract
Reproductive success in monogamous species is generally affected by both behavioural and hormonal fine-tuning between pair partners. Vigilance, defence and brooding of offspring are among the main parental investments, and often the sexes adopt different roles. In the present study, we investigate how sex differences in parental behaviour and family proximity in the socially monogamous Greylag Goose (Anser anser) affect gosling survival. During the reproductive season in spring 2013, we recorded the behaviour of 18 pairs with offspring and gosling survival in a semi-tame, long-term monitored, and individually marked flock of Greylag Geese in Grünau, Austria. We found that behavioural role differentiation between the parents varied with developmental phase, and thus with gosling age. Especially during the first 10 days after hatching, females were foraging more frequently than males, which were more vigilant and aggressive towards other flock members. Such differences between the sexes levelled out 20 to 30 days after hatching. In general, females stayed in closer proximity to their offspring than males. Gosling survival was high when the parents were relatively aggressive and emphasized vigilance rather than foraging behaviour. Hence, we show a direct link between pair partners' quality of parental investment and gosling survival.Entities:
Keywords: Anser anser; Gosling survival; Greylag Goose; Parental behaviour
Year: 2019 PMID: 31098339 PMCID: PMC6476843 DOI: 10.1007/s10336-019-01638-x
Source DB: PubMed Journal: J Ornithol ISSN: 2193-7192 Impact factor: 1.745
Standardized loadings derived from the PCA (KMO = 0.61)
| Behavioural variables | Principal components | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| PC1 | PC2 | PC3 | |
| Head low |
| − 0.08 | 0.02 |
| Head up |
| 0 | − 0.01 |
| Beak up | 0.28 |
| 0.08 |
| Threats | − 0.2 |
| 0.06 |
| Attacks | − 0.07 |
| − 0.09 |
| Foraging | − 0.41 | − 0.17 |
|
| Extreme head up | − 0.39 | − 0.16 | − |
| % of variance explained | 21 | 21 | 17 |
Loadings higher than 0.5 are highlighted in bold
KMO Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin
Models with highest support and averaged models for the three principal components
| Estimate | SE | CI (2.5%) | CI (97.5%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||
| (Intercept) | − 1.08 | 0.18 | − 5.99 | − 1.46 | − 0.72 |
| Phase (1 vs. 2) | 0.63 | 0.13 | 4.89 | 0.37 | 0.88 |
| Phase (1 vs. 3) | 0.67 | 0.14 | 4.84 | 0.39 | 0.95 |
| Sex (female vs. male) | 0.81 | 0.17 | 4.72 | 0.46 | 1.16 |
| Number of goslings | 0.11 | 0.03 | 3.73 | 0.05 | 0.17 |
| Phase 2: sex | 0.06 | 0.17 | 0.35 | − 0.27 | 0.39 |
| Phase 3: sex | − 0.45 | 0.17 | − 2.60 | − 0.79 | − 0.11 |
Used as reference: phase: phase 1, sex: females, “:” indicates interactions between factors
Estimated means, standard errors (SE), t values and confidence intervals (CI) are given. In averaged models, adjusted SE and z values are shown
Fig. 1Estimated mean values for PC scores of general vigilance in male and female parental geese during the three phases of gosling rearing. General vigilance increased in phase 2 and decreased again in phase 3 in males, while females stayed equally alert in phases 2 and 3, although to a lesser extent than males
Fig. 2Estimated mean PC scores for the three PCs “general vigilance” (white boxes), “agonistic interactions” (light grey boxes) and “foraging/head up” (dark grey boxes) with respect to the number of goslings. While “general vigilance” and “agonistic interactions” increased with the number of goslings, scores of the “foraging/head up” decreased
Fig. 3Estimated mean scores for agonistic interactions in female (white fills) and male (grey fills) parental geese during the three rearing phases. Scores were higher in males than in females, and decreased in males from phase 1 to phase 3
Fig. 4Estimated mean PC scores for foraging/head up in male (grey boxes) and female (white boxes) geese during the three rearing phases. An interaction between sex and phase was found, with a strong difference between males and females in phase 1
Models with highest support and averaged models for family proximity
| Estimate | Adjusted SE | CI (2.5%) | CI (97.5%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||
| Phase (1 vs. 2) | 0.81 | 0.17 | 4.63 | 0.47 | 1.15 |
| Phase (1 vs. 3) | 1.14 | 0.20 | 5.85 | 0.76 | 1.53 |
| Sex (female vs. male) | 0.64 | 0.17 | 3.64 | 0.29 | 0.98 |
| Number of goslings | − 0.16 | 0.04 | 4.57 | − 0.23 | − 0.09 |
| Phase 2: sex | − 0.35 | 0.20 | 1.73 | − 0.74 | 0.05 |
| Phase 3: sex | − 0.43 | 0.20 | 2.12 | − 0.83 | − 0.03 |
Used as reference: phase: phase 1, sex: females, “:” indicates interactions between factors
Estimated means, standard errors (SE), t values and confidence intervals (CI) are given. For the averaged model, adjusted SE and z values are shown
Fig. 5Estimated spatial proximity between female and male parental geese and their goslings during active (a) and inactive (b) phases during the three rearing phases. Spatial proximity decreased throughout the rearing phases, and goslings were closer to their mothers than to their fathers in phase 1
Fig. 6Development of the number of goslings (black circles) and families (white circles), and percentage of goslings that survived (diamond with full line) and disappeared (diamond with dotted line) during the rearing period (days after hatching)
Full and null model investigating gosling survival, with coefficients, estimated means, standard errors (SE), t values and confidence intervals (CI)
| Estimate | SE | CI (2.5%) | CI (97.5%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||
| (Intercept) | 1.27 | 0.35 | 3.59 | 0.55 | 2.07 |
|
| |||||
| (Intercept) | 1.27 | 0.35 | 3.67 | 0.56 | 2.05 |
| General vigilance component | − 0.02 | 0.07 | − 0.25 | − 0.15 | 0.12 |
| Agonistic interactions component | 0.14 | 0.07 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.28 |
| Foraging/head up component | − 0.22 | 0.06 | − 3.32 | − 0.35 | − 0.09 |