ArticleOecologia2010
Darker eumelanic barn owls better withstand food depletion through resistance to food deprivation and lower appetite.
Article in Oecologia, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Individual quality and environmental factors interact to shape reproduction and survival in a resident bird of prey.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Exogenous corticosterone and melanin-based coloration explain variation in juvenile dispersal behaviour in the barn owl (Tyto alba).PloS one · 2021Article
- Non-Vocal Behaviors Are More Frequent During the Decisive Negotiation Phases in Barn Owl Siblings.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Social huddling and physiological thermoregulation are related to melanism in the nocturnal barn owl.Oecologia · 2016Article
- Linking melanism to brain development: expression of a melanism-related gene in barn owl feather follicles covaries with sleep ontogeny.Frontiers in zoology · 2013Article
- Viability is associated with melanin-based coloration in the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica).PloS one · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The intensity of selection exerted on ornaments typically varies between environments. Reaction norms may help to identify the conditions under which ornamented individuals have a selective advantage over drab conspecifics. It has been recently hypothesized that in vertebrates eumelanin-based coloration reflects the ability to regulate the balance between energy intake and expenditure. We tested two predictions of this hypothesis in barn owl nestlings, namely that darker eumelanic individuals have a lower appetite and lose less weight when food-deprived. We found that individuals fed ad libitum during 24 h consumed less food when their plumage was marked with larger black spots. When food-deprived for 24 h nestlings displaying larger black spots lost less weight. Thus, in the barn owl the degree of eumelanin-based coloration reflects the ability to withstand periods of food depletion through lower appetite and resistance to food restriction. Eumelanic coloration may therefore be associated with adaptations to environments where the risk of food depletion is high.
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