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Habitat quality affects stress responses and survival in a bird wintering under extremely low ambient temperatures

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Abstract

Animals normally respond to stressful environmental stimuli by releasing glucocorticoid hormones. We investigated whether baseline corticosterone (CORT), handling-induced corticosterone concentration(s), and body condition indices of members of willow tit (Poecile montanus) groups differed while wintering in old growth forests and managed young forests in mild weather conditions and during cold spells. Willow tits spend the winter season in non-kin groups in which dominant individuals typically claim their priority to access resources, while subordinate individuals may experience greater levels of stress and higher mortality, especially during cold spells. We captured birds to measure baseline CORT and levels of handling-induced CORT secretion after 20 min of capture. Willow tits in the young forests had higher baseline CORT and a smaller increase in CORT in response to capture than individuals in the old forests. Baseline CORT was higher in females and juvenile birds compared to adult males, whereas handling-induced CORT secretion did not differ between birds of different ages. During cold spells, baseline CORT of willow tits increased and handling-induced CORT secretion decreased, especially in birds in young forests. Willow tits’ survival was higher in the old forests, with dominant individuals surviving better than subordinates. Our results show that changes in CORT secretion reflect responses to habitat quality and climate harshness, indicating young managed coniferous forests as a suboptimal habitat for the willow tit.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Todd M. Freeberg for valuable comments which greatly improved the manuscript.

Funding

The study was supported by two grants of the Latvian Council of Science (No. 07.2100 and 290/2012) and a grant of the Estonian Research Council (No. PUT1223) to I.A.K.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Animal Health and Environment BIOR, Institute of Food Safety, Rīga, Latvia

    Dina Cīrule

  2. Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Science, Tartu, Estonia

    Tatjana Krama

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, Latvia

    Tatjana Krama & Ronalds Krams

  4. Department of Botany and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Rīga, Latvia

    Didzis Elferts

  5. Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, Salaspils, Latvia

    Didzis Elferts

  6. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia

    Ants Kaasik & Indrikis A. Krams

  7. Department of Biology, Turku Brain and Mind Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Markus J. Rantala

  8. Department of Environment Policy, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Pranas Mierauskas

  9. English, Drama and Writing Studies, and School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand

    Severi Luoto

  10. Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Rīga, Latvia

    Indrikis A. Krams

Authors
  1. Dina Cīrule
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  2. Tatjana Krama
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  3. Ronalds Krams
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  4. Didzis Elferts
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  6. Markus J. Rantala
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  7. Pranas Mierauskas
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  8. Severi Luoto
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  9. Indrikis A. Krams
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Indrikis A. Krams.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

All animal manipulations were carried out in accordance with the legal and ethical standards of the Republic of Latvia. The project had the permission of the Nature Conservation Agency of the Republic of Latvia (No. 16/2012).

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Communicated by: Alxandre Roulin

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Cīrule, D., Krama, T., Krams, R. et al. Habitat quality affects stress responses and survival in a bird wintering under extremely low ambient temperatures. Sci Nat 104, 99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1519-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1519-8

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