Amat Juan A, Hortas Francisco, Arroyo Gonzalo M, Rendón Miguel A, Ramírez José M, Rendón-Martos Manuel, Pérez-Hurtado Alejandro, Garrido Araceli
Estación Biológica de Doñana, C. S. I. C., Apartado 1056, E-41080 Sevilla, Spain.
Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2007 Jun;147(2):569-76. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2007.02.006. Epub 2007 Feb 14.
Greater flamingos in southern Spain foraged in areas distant from a breeding site, spending 4-6 days in foraging areas between successive visits to the colony to feed their chicks. During four years, we took blood samples from chicks to ascertain whether there were interannual variations in several blood parameters, indicative of food quality and feeding frequencies. When the chicks were captured, 20-31% of them had their crops empty, indicating that not all chicks were fed daily. Additional evidence of variations in feeding frequencies was obtained from a principal component analysis (PCA) on plasma chemistry values, which also indicated that there were annual variations in the quality of food received by chicks. The association of cholesterol and glucose with some PC axes indicated that some chicks were experiencing fasting periods. Of all plasma metabolites considered, cholesterol was the best one to predict body condition. Greater flamingo chicks experiencing longer fasting intervals, as suggested by higher plasma levels of cholesterol, were in lower body condition.
西班牙南部的大火烈鸟在远离繁殖地的区域觅食，在连续返回繁殖地喂养雏鸟的间隔期间，会在觅食区域停留4至6天。在四年时间里，我们从雏鸟身上采集血样，以确定几个血液参数是否存在年际变化，这些参数可指示食物质量和喂食频率。当雏鸟被捕获时，20%至31%的雏鸟嗉囊是空的，这表明并非所有雏鸟每天都能得到喂食。通过对血浆化学值进行主成分分析（PCA），获得了喂食频率变化的更多证据，这也表明雏鸟所接受食物的质量存在年度变化。胆固醇和葡萄糖与某些主成分轴的关联表明，一些雏鸟正经历禁食期。在所有考虑的血浆代谢物中，胆固醇是预测身体状况的最佳指标。血浆胆固醇水平较高表明，经历较长禁食间隔的大火烈鸟雏鸟身体状况较差。
