Disciplines
Behavior and Ethology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Individual variation in behavioral plasticity in African starlings
Authors: Jasmine Little1, Dustin Rubenstein2, Sarah Guindre-Parker1
1Kennesaw State University 2Columbia University
Behavioral plasticity allows individuals to respond appropriately to highly variable environmental conditions in order to increase their fitness under different types of environments. Cooperatively breeding superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) living in unpredictable Kenyan savannas experience tremendous variation in annual rainfall from year to year. Rainfall is critical for these birds because it shapes the availability of food (insects), but it remains unclear how the parental care behavior of individual starlings is influenced by changes in rainfall. We combine a long-term dataset of superb starling parental care behavior with a mixed modeling reaction norm framework to test whether superb starlings show individual variation in their behavioral plasticity to changing rainfall. We also compare behavioral plasticity in response to changes in pre-breeding rainfall versus breeding rainfall. We will discuss how individual variation in parental care or individual variation in behavioral plasticity of parental care may allow superb starlings to cope with raising young in unpredictable environments.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CSM - Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Sarah Guindre-Parker
Included in
Individual variation in behavioral plasticity in African starlings
Individual variation in behavioral plasticity in African starlings
Authors: Jasmine Little1, Dustin Rubenstein2, Sarah Guindre-Parker1
1Kennesaw State University 2Columbia University
Behavioral plasticity allows individuals to respond appropriately to highly variable environmental conditions in order to increase their fitness under different types of environments. Cooperatively breeding superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) living in unpredictable Kenyan savannas experience tremendous variation in annual rainfall from year to year. Rainfall is critical for these birds because it shapes the availability of food (insects), but it remains unclear how the parental care behavior of individual starlings is influenced by changes in rainfall. We combine a long-term dataset of superb starling parental care behavior with a mixed modeling reaction norm framework to test whether superb starlings show individual variation in their behavioral plasticity to changing rainfall. We also compare behavioral plasticity in response to changes in pre-breeding rainfall versus breeding rainfall. We will discuss how individual variation in parental care or individual variation in behavioral plasticity of parental care may allow superb starlings to cope with raising young in unpredictable environments.