Stojanovic Dejan
Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Ecol Lett. 2023 May;26(5):789-796. doi: 10.1111/ele.14200. Epub 2023 Mar 16.
Captive breeding and release to the wild is a globally important conservation tool. However, captivity can result in phenotypic changes that incur post-release fitness costs, especially if they affect strenuous or risky behaviours. Bird wing shape is critical for migration success and suboptimal phenotypes are strongly selected against. In this study, I demonstrate surprising plasticity of bird wing phenotypes in captivity for 4/16 studied species. In a model species, captive-born juveniles with wild wing phenotypes (a 1-mm longer distal primary flight feather) survived post-release at 2.7 times the rate of those with captive phenotypes (i.e. a shorter distal feather). Subtle phenotypic changes and their fitness impacts are more common than widely realised because they are easily overlooked. To improve captive breeding for conservation, practitioners must surveil phenotypic changes and find ways to mitigate them.
圈养繁殖并放归野外是一项具有全球重要性的保护手段。然而，圈养可能导致表型变化，从而产生放归后的适应性成本，尤其是当这些变化影响到剧烈或危险行为时。鸟类的翅膀形状对于迁徙成功至关重要，而次优表型会受到强烈的选择淘汰。在本研究中，我证明了在所研究的16个物种中有4个物种在圈养环境下鸟类翅膀表型具有惊人的可塑性。在一个模式物种中，具有野生翅膀表型（初级飞羽远端长1毫米）的圈养出生幼鸟放归后的存活几率是具有圈养表型（即较短的远端羽毛）幼鸟的2.7倍。细微的表型变化及其对适应性的影响比人们普遍意识到的更为常见，因为它们很容易被忽视。为了改进用于保护的圈养繁殖，从业者必须监测表型变化并找到减轻这些变化的方法。
