Interrupted incubation: How dabbling ducks respond when flushed from the nest

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research disturbance negatively impacts incubation behaviour of female Great Tits

“…In this study, we found evidence that research disturbance negatively affects Great tit incubation behaviour. Our initial hypothesis was that females reacted to a disturbance event by staying away from the nest longer than expected given their incubation rhythms, but we also expected that this anti-predatory behaviour, observed in previous studies (Kovařík & Pavel, 2011; Ibáñez-Álamo & Soler, 2012; Croston et al, 2021; Tkaczyk et al, 2023), was compensated with longer on-bouts that ended up balancing any negative effect on nest attendance. However, we found that 1) the response of females was restricted to the ongoing (absent females) or first (present females) off-bout after a disturbance, i.e., a short recovery period; 2) females did not clearly compensate for their prolonged absence from the nest by lengthening subsequent on-bouts; and consequently, and despite the limited anti-predator response, 3) daily incubation rhythms were negatively affected by the disturbance events (i.e., lower nest attentiveness).…”

“…Flushed females also stayed away from the nest longer if the researcher performed additional activities during a visit (e.g., measuring eggs), in contrast to absent females, which seemed unaffected by prolonged visits. Experiments simulating the presence of predators near the nest generally result in incubating females leaving the nest for longer periods (Kovařík & Pavel, 2011; Ibáñez-Álamo & Soler, 2012; Croston et al, 2021; Tkaczyk et al, 2023), although the duration and magnitude of the response is species-specific (Ghalambor & Martin, 2002; Zanette et al, 2011; Ghalambor et al, 2013) and/or dependent on predator type (Basso & Richner, 2015a). Absent females appeared to evaluate the disturbance caused by the researchers differently.…”

“…), absent females may encounter a researcher in their nest when they return to incubate or while already foraging nearby. Flushed females may refrain from foraging or other self-care activities during part of their off-bout to increase vigilance (Morosinotto et al, 2013; Croston et al, 2021), at least until the researcher has left the nest, which could partly explain their longer off-bouts. An unexpected trend also emerged between populations when females were absent from the nest, although more data would be needed to assess a clear effect.…”

Waterfowl recently infected with low pathogenic avian influenza exhibit reduced local movement and delayed migration

“…However, we detected no relationship between space use and infection in mallards, which were sampled during the breeding season. Breeding‐season movements are constrained by nesting behavior, especially for females (Croston et al, 2021; Eichholz & Elmberg, 2014), so infection might have limited effects on movement during the summer. Local processes are among the most important drivers of large‐scale patterns of influenza infection in wild waterfowl (Gorsich et al, 2021), and longer waterfowl residence times are associated with influenza outbreaks in poultry (Humphreys et al, 2020); therefore, these results indicate that any infection‐related reductions in local movements could affect both local and large‐scale viral dispersal.…”

Nest attendance, incubation constancy, and onset of incubation in dabbling ducks

“…For example, after clutch completion, mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and gadwall (Mareca strepera) average 1.7 and 1.4 incubation recesses per day, respectively, and these recesses last on average, 91-193 minutes depending on the species and the time of day [18]. Previous research has demonstrated that dabbling duck hen nest attendance and incubation rhythms can be influenced by a wide variety of factors including ambient temperature, time of day, date, nest age, food availability and nutrient limitation, hen body condition, predation risk, disturbance, and weather [16,[18][19][20][21][22][23]. Thus, incubating hens appear to be responsive to changing physiological and environmental conditions and moderate their incubation behavior accordingly.…”