Food supplements increase adult tarsus length, but not growth rate, in an island population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Abstract

BackgroundVariation in food supply during early development can influence growth rate and body size in many species. However, whilst the detrimental effects of food restriction have often been studied in natural populations, how young individuals respond to an artificial increase in food supply is rarely investigated. Here, we investigated both the short-term and long-term effects of providing house sparrow chicks with food supplements during a key period of growth and development and assessed whether providing food supplements had any persistent effect upon adult size (measured here as tarsus length).ResultsMale nestlings tended to reach higher mass asymptotes than females. Furthermore, brood size was negatively associated with a chick's asymptotic mass. However, providing food supplements had no influence upon the growth rate or the asymptotic mass of chicks. Adults that received food supplements as chicks were larger, in terms of their tarsus length, than adults that did not receive extra food as chicks. In addition, the variation in tarsus length amongst adult males that were given food supplements as chicks was significantly less than the variance observed amongst males that did not receive food supplements.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that the food supply chicks experience during a critical developmental period can have a permanent effect upon their adult phenotype. Furthermore, providing extra food to chicks resulted in sex-biased variance in a size-related trait amongst adults, which shows that the degree of sexual size dimorphism can be affected by the environment experienced during growth.

On being the right size: increased body size is associated with reduced telomere length under natural conditions

“…The sex of the birds was not known at the time of sample collection. We confined our analysis to males, for which we had the larger sample presumably for stochastic reasons, since the pattern of growth in body size differs between the sexes in house sparrows [32], and the sample size for females was too small to enable investigation of the differences between the sexes.…”

Predictably Philandering Females Prompt Poor Paternal Provisioning

“…We used data from a natural house sparrow population breeding on Lundy Island (51710 0 N, 4740 0 W; Cleasby et al 2011). When captured, birds were marked with a metal ring from the British Trust for Ornithology and an individual color ring combination.…”

Influence of nutritional strategies on growth performance and digestive tract traits of brown egg laying pullets and subsequent effects on egg production

“…An increase in body and tarsus length suggests a better bone development (Cleasby et al, 2011) of the pullet which might be of benefit for future egg production (Senar and Pascual, 1997;Mendes et al, 2008). Opposite to these findings, the absolute length of the body and tarsus were higher for pullets fed straw than for pullets fed SBP.…”

“…Body length, BMI, and tarsus measurements are useful criteria to evaluate body size and composition of avian species, such as sparrows (Cleasby et al, 2011), broilers (Mendes et al, 2007;Van Roovert-Reijrink;, pullets (Lamazares et al 2006;Ortiz et al 2011), and hens (Ojedapo et al, 2012). In the current research, an increase in the fiber content of the rearing diets or in the energy of the laying hen diets had no effects on these traits at 46 wk of age.…”

“…tarsus width] are useful criteria to predict the growth and future size of the birds (Senar and Pascual, 1997;Mendes et al, 2008;Cleasby et al, 2011) and the production potential of avian species (Ortiz et al, 2011;Saldaña et al, 2015a,b). However, the information available on the influence of nutritional practices during the rearing and production phases on these variables, and its relationship with BW and egg production of the laying hens is very limited.…”