- Immune challenge of female great tits at nests affects provisioning and body conditions of their offspring.
Immune challenge of female great tits at nests affects provisioning and body conditions of their offspring.
Acta ethologica (2017-09-29)
Emilia Grzędzicka
PMID28955122
ABSTRACT
The trade-off between animal's parental reproductive effort and survival is still poorly understood. Parental allocation between the workload during breeding attempts and the parents' own body conditions can be assessed through the offspring quality. Here, I questioned whether the immune responsiveness of female great tits may be considered as a mediator of this trade-off. Specifically, I tested whether (1) the parental reproductive effort decreases, (2) the food composition provided to chicks changes, and (3) whether the nestling immunocompetence and body mass decrease after experimental immunisation. Two populations of great tit