ArticleBiology letters2020
Examining the link between relaxed predation and bird coloration on islands.
Article in Biology letters, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
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- Genomes of Microtus Rodents Highlight the Importance of Olfactory and Immune Systems in Their Fast Radiation.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Genome-wide relaxation of selection and the evolution of the island syndrome in Orkney voles.Genome research · 2024Article
- Adaptive and non-adaptive convergent evolution in feather reflectance of California Channel Islands songbirds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Strength of the 'island rule' in birds is positively associated with absence of avian predators.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Article
- Relaxed risk of predation drives parallel evolution of stickleback behavior.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- How to behave when marooned: the behavioural component of the island syndrome remains underexplored.Biology letters · 2022Review
- Do avian species survive better on islands?Biology letters · 2021Article
- Examining the link between relaxed predation and bird coloration on islands.Biology letters · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Insular ecosystems share analogous ecological conditions, leading to patterns of convergent evolution that are collectively termed as the 'island syndrome'. In birds, part of this syndrome is a tendency for a duller plumage, possibly as a result of relaxed sexual selection. Despite this global pattern, some insular species display a more colourful plumage than their mainland relatives, but why this occurs has remained unexplained. Here, we examine the hypothesis that these cases of increased plumage coloration on islands could arise through a relaxation of predation pressure. We used comparative analyses to investigate whether average insular richness of raptors of suitable mass influences the plumage colourfulness and brightness across 110 pairs of insular endemic species and their closest mainland relatives. As predicted, we find a likely negative relationship between insular coloration and insular predation while controlling for mainland predation and coloration, suggesting that species were more likely to become more colourful as the number of insular predators decreased. By contrast, plumage brightness was not influenced by predation pressure. Relaxation from predation, together with drift, might thus be a key mechanism of species phenotypic responses to insularity.
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