Department of Biology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
Horm Behav. 2010 Feb;57(2):162-8. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.10.009. Epub 2009 Oct 29.
Stressful conditions during development may have lasting consequences for an animal's lifetime fitness. We investigated the degree to which parental provisioning and nest attendance influenced baseline levels of the stress hormone corticosterone in nestling Florida scrub-jays. Provisioning rates of male and female breeders and nest attendance of female breeders were recorded during focal watches conducted between days 3 and 5 post-hatch. A small blood sample was taken from each nestling on day 11 post-hatch and used to quantify levels of baseline corticosterone. The proportion of time spent by female breeders at a considerable distance from the nest was positively related to nestling corticosterone levels. Nestling corticosterone was also negatively related to parental provisioning rate, although this effect seemed to be secondary to the effect of the female's time away from the nest. These results indicate that parental behavior contributes to nestling stress physiology, which may in turn direct the formation of the adult phenotype and influence an individual's chances of survival.
发育过程中的压力条件可能会对动物一生的适应能力产生持久的影响。我们调查了亲鸟育雏和巢内停留时间在多大程度上影响了佛罗里达州灌丛鸦雏鸟的基础水平应激激素皮质醇。在孵化后 3 至 5 天进行的焦点观察期间，记录了雄性和雌性繁殖者的喂养率以及雌性繁殖者的巢内停留时间。在孵化后第 11 天，从每个雏鸟身上抽取一小份血液样本，并用于量化基础皮质醇水平。雌性繁殖者在离巢相当远的地方花费的时间比例与雏鸟的皮质醇水平呈正相关。雏鸟的皮质醇水平也与亲鸟的喂养率呈负相关，尽管这种影响似乎是雌性离开巢的时间的次要影响。这些结果表明，亲鸟行为会影响雏鸟的应激生理，这可能会直接影响成年表型的形成，并影响个体的生存机会。
