Quail eggs in artificial nests change their coloration when exposed to ambient conditions: implication for studies on nest predation

PeerJ

article

Gustavo Liñan Cembrano¹  Macarena Castro²  Juan A. Amat³  Alejandro Perez²  Miguel Ángel Rendón³  Cristina Ramo³ 

[1] Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla ,(IMSE-CNM-CSIC—Universidad de Sevilla);Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina ,(INMAR), Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar ,(CEIMAR), Universidad de Cádiz;Dpto. Ecología de Humedales

关键词: Artificial nests;    Egg coloration;    Japanese Quail;    Nest camouflage;    Open nests;    Predation studies;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.11725

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Quail eggs have been widely used in field experiments, mainly to study factors associated with the risk of nest predation. Some shortcomings of using quail eggs in this type of study have been previously addressed (e.g., these eggs might be too big for some predators of eggs of small birds). Here, we show experimental evidence of another shortcoming of the use of these eggs in field experiments. Quail eggs exposed to sunlight rapidly faded in colour after three days, both in the visible and UV spectra, and this change was related to the amount of solar radiation received. This caused changes in the camouflage of the eggs, which may be perceived by predators with different visual systems (dichromatic, trichromatic, and tetrachromatic (for both violet- and UV-sensitive species)). Therefore, the results of field studies of nest predation using quail eggs might be questioned in those cases in which the camouflage has been altered due to the rapid changes in coloration, as this can affect the resulting predation rates. We recommend that researchers planning to use quail eggs should perform a prospective assessment of changes in coloration of eggs exposed to environmental conditions in the nest sites used by the target species.

【 授权许可】

CC BY