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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 6, 2009
Behavioral Ecology 2009 20(4):789-796; doi:10.1093/beheco/arp062
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring

Pekka Kontiainena, Hannu Pietiäinena, Kalle Huttunena, Patrik Karella, Heikki Kolunenb and Jon E. Brommera

a Bird Ecology Unit, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), 00014 Helsinki, Finland b Nikkarinkatu 52, 15500, Lahti, Finland

Address correspondence to P. Kontiainen, who is now at Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Bird Ecology Unit, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: pekka.kontiainen{at}helsinki.fi.


  Abstract

Animals are thought to adjust their behavior optimally to any given environment. So-called behavioral syndromes, or consistent patterns of behavior across environments, contradict this assumption of unlimited plasticity. We studied nest defense aggressiveness of female Ural owls (244 females with 482 breeding attempts) breeding in a highly variable environment created by fluctuations in the abundance of their main prey (field and bank voles) across years. Ural owls were more aggressive when voles were increasing in density as well as when the Ural owls had large brood sizes and laid early in the season. Aggressive nest defense was highly repeatable between breeding attempts (r = 0.52 ± 0.05 standard error), but individuals also differed in their plasticity (the extent to which they adjusted the level of their aggression to the varying food conditions). Fierce nest defenders produced more recruits to the local breeding population, but a female's survival was not affected by her intensity of nest defense. A path analysis revealed that nest defense aggressiveness, rather than its correlates vole abundance, brood size, or laying date, best explained offspring recruitment. Our findings provide an ultimate explanation for the Ural owl's extremely aggressive nest defense.

Key words: natural selection, nest defense, personality, Strix uralensis, survival, temperament, vole cycle.

Received 1 August 2008; revised 10 March 2009; accepted 23 March 2009.


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