Área de Zoología, Departamento de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Almería, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 5;10(1):1869. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58826-6.
Social information use has well-known fitness benefits. However, causes underlying the apparent inter-individual variability in the propensity to use social information are poorly studied. Melanins are pigments responsible for most of intra-specific color variation in vertebrates and their variation is often associated with changes in behaviour. Here, we explored whether melanism is related to individual propensity to use social information in the color polymorphic scops owl Otus scops. We manipulated social information on predation risk at nests by broadcasting calls of the sympatric little owl Athene noctua and found that owlets of brownish females exposed to alarm calls had lower levels of natural antibodies than those of greyish females. In parallel, we found changes in parental behaviour contingent on coloration because when exposed to the risky treatment brownish females returned earlier to nests than greyish females and owlets raised by brownish females were fed with smaller prey than those raised by greyish ones. These results provide support for a previous ignored role of melanins on the propensity to use social information, which may help to explain the maintenance of melanin-based color polymorphisms wherever social environments are variable.
社会信息的利用对健康有明显的益处。然而，个体之间利用社会信息的倾向存在明显差异，其潜在原因还研究得很少。黑色素是脊椎动物体内大部分种内颜色变异的原因，其变异通常与行为变化有关。在这里，我们探讨了黑色素沉着是否与颜色多态性的角鸮 Otus scops 个体利用社会信息的倾向有关。我们通过播放同域的小鸮 Athene noctua 的叫声来操纵巢中的捕食风险的社会信息，并发现暴露于警报声中的棕色雌鸟的幼鸟的天然抗体水平低于灰色雌鸟的幼鸟。同时，我们发现了父母行为因颜色而变化，因为当暴露于危险处理时，棕色雌鸟比灰色雌鸟更早地返回巢穴，并且由棕色雌鸟抚养的幼鸟比由灰色雌鸟抚养的幼鸟喂食的猎物更小。这些结果支持了黑色素对利用社会信息倾向的先前被忽视的作用，这可能有助于解释在社会环境变化的地方，黑色素为基础的颜色多态性的维持。
