Department of Animal Science, Division of Wildlife, Faculty of Life Sciences and Engineering, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain.
Institute for Game and Wildlife Research, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain.
BMC Evol Biol. 2018 Nov 26;18(1):176. doi: 10.1186/s12862-018-1295-x.
Predation is one of the most important natural selection forces. Prey species can optimize feeding behavior and escape from predators based on mobility conditioned by body proportions. With age, mobility capacity increases and individuals are more efficient in finding resources and safety (e.g., food and refuge). Birds' mobility is driven by the dimensions, of the head and torso, as well as the extremities and flight feathers. To assess the relationship between body traits and to understand how body proportions are organized in wild Red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa), we used biometric data from nearly 14,000 individuals, obtained during a long-term study (1988-2011) on a wild population.
We used GLMs and regressions to model the relationship between body mass and the size of body parts. We found that wing length was the morphological part best explained by other body trait measures. Wing length models were better predictors in juveniles than in adults and in females than in males. Wing length and feather length, mass and total length are the most strongly related parts; mass and wing length, total length and feather length are moderately related. The association between mass and wing length is intermediated by feather length and total length.
Social inclusion, feeding and predator evasion may be affected by body structure intermediated by mobility and health. Our results suggest that proportions of the body, extremities and flight feathers drive mobility which is intimately associated with ecology, biological efficiency, health and physical optimization. Our findings showed that wing size was strongly allied to other body part measurements, enhancing the importance of body structure conformation for flight. Our study highlights the scaled relationship of body structure among age-sex classes and its relevance to social cohesion, flock movement and the balance between predation and starvation.
捕食是最重要的自然选择力量之一。猎物物种可以根据身体比例所决定的移动能力优化觅食行为并逃避捕食者。随着年龄的增长，移动能力会增加，个体在寻找资源和安全（例如食物和避难所）方面更加高效。鸟类的机动性取决于头部和躯干的尺寸，以及四肢和飞行羽毛。为了评估身体特征之间的关系，并了解身体比例在野生红腿鹧鸪（Alectoris rufa）中的组织方式，我们使用了近 14000 个个体的生物测量数据，这些数据是在对野生种群进行的一项长期研究（1988-2011 年）中获得的。
我们使用 GLMs 和回归来模拟体重与身体部位大小之间的关系。我们发现，翼长是最能被其他身体特征指标解释的形态部分。翼长模型在幼鸟中比在成鸟中更好地预测，在雌性中比在雄性中更好地预测。翼长和羽毛长度、质量和总长度是最密切相关的部分；质量和翼长、总长度和羽毛长度是中度相关的。质量和翼长之间的关联受羽毛长度和总长度的中介。
社会包容、觅食和逃避捕食者可能会受到由机动性和健康介导的身体结构的影响。我们的结果表明，身体、四肢和飞行羽毛的比例驱动着与生态学、生物效率、健康和身体优化密切相关的机动性。我们的研究表明，翼展大小与其他身体部位的测量值密切相关，这增强了身体结构对飞行的重要性。我们的研究结果强调了身体结构在年龄-性别类群中的比例关系及其与社会凝聚力、群体运动以及捕食和饥饿之间平衡的相关性。
