Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on November 10, 2004
Behavioral Ecology 2005 16(2):371-376; doi:10.1093/beheco/ari008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
16/2/371    most recent
ari008v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shealer, D. A.
Right arrow Articles by Nisbet, I. C. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Shealer, D. A.
Right arrow Articles by Nisbet, I. C. T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Behavioral Ecology vol. 16 no. 2 © International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2004; all rights reserved.

The adaptive significance of stealing in a marine bird and its relationship to parental quality

David A. Shealera, Jeffrey A. Spendelowb, Jeff S. Hatfieldb and Ian C. T. Nisbetc

aDepartment of Biology, Loras College, 1450 Alta Vista, Dubuque, IA 52004-0178, USA, bU.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD 20708, USA, and cICT Nisbet & Company, North Falmouth, MA 02556, USA

Address correspondence to D.A. Shealer. E-mail: david.shealer{at}loras.edu.

Kleptoparasitism (food theft) is a tactic used opportunistically by many foraging birds, but little is known about its fitness benefits. Here we show that habitual kleptoparasitism by individual parent roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) is associated with consistently superior reproductive performance relative to nonkleptoparasitic ("honest") parents, as measured by growth and survival to fledging among their offspring. In broods of two, both chicks of kleptoparasitic parents exhibited superior growth performance during the middle and later stages of the rearing period, relative to chicks of honest parents. This difference was especially pronounced in second-hatched chicks, whose survival is highly variable among years and dependent on food availability. Over a 10-year period, average productivity (number of chicks fledged per pair) was significantly higher among kleptoparasites than among honest parents, with a larger relative difference during years of food shortage. Our study indicates that kleptoparasitism in roseate terns is an important component of parental quality and provides the first evidence that food stealing is associated with enhanced fitness in a facultatively kleptoparasitic seabird.

Key words: breeding success, foraging behavior, kleptoparasitism, parental quality, roseate tern, Sterna dougallii.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
A. Ridley and N. Raihani
Facultative response to a kleptoparasite by the cooperatively breeding pied babbler
Behav. Ecol., March 1, 2007; 18(2): 324 - 330.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.