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Hormonal Regulation of the Behaviour in Seabirds
Head: Dr. Petra Quillfeldt (Emmy Noether Junior Research Group)

Avian diversity is exemplified by the great variation in life history strategies, from short-lived passerines, to long-lived raptors and seabirds. The evolution of variable life-history strategies is still poorly understood. Within seabirds, a variety of strategies allow different species to exploit the marine habitat. Thus, seabirds have developed very varied life history strategies: the individual species differ in their rates of growth, their lifespan and the number of chicks they raise. Our project aims to study and compare three groups of seabirds. They differ both in their life history and in their ecological context: some live on the open sea, are long-lived and raise just one chick per season (Thin-billed prions), others seek their food mostly near the coast (Gentoo penguins), while others still raise several chicks (Imperial cormorants).

We want to find out how far these different ways of living and different ecological conditions influence the interaction between chicks and their parents. We will draw on methods from the fields of behavioral ecology, endocrinology, molecular ecology and bioacoustics to examine the functional and mechanistic aspects of brood investments. These will also allow us to investigate whether hormonal mechanisms provide an explanation for the intra- and inter-specific variation in feeding and growth strategies among seabirds.

Furthermore, the project also intends to examine hypotheses concerning the evolution of begging as an "honest signal" in the interaction between chicks and their parents. We want to find out if chicks that beg more intensely simultaneously signal quality. We will investigate whether begging is costly, as predicted by signalling theory, because the hormones governing it may have deleterious side effects (immunocompetence handicap hypothesis). In addition to the experimental methods, comparative methods on a phylogenetic basis will be used to test predictions on the evolution of patterns of kin conflict and sex-specific provisioning across bird species, with a focus on seabirds.

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