Publication
Title
Yolk androgen deposition without an energetic cost for female rockhopper penguins : a compensatory strategy to accelerate brood reduction?
Author
Abstract
Whether androgen deposition in eggs is physiologically costly for female birds has remained a crucial but unsolved question, despite a broad use of this assumption in functional studies. We tested whether females depositing high androgen concentrations experienced higher mass losses than females depositing low androgen concentrations. Analysing female body mass change during egg formation in rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome chrysocome), we observed no energetic cost to androgen deposition. Nevertheless, lighter females laid eggs with higher yolk androgen concentrations. This relationship existed only for the second-laid egg (B-egg), but not for the first-laid egg (A-egg). Since the B-egg is usually the first to hatch and the only one to produce a fledging chick, we hypothesize that differential yolk androgen deposition may be an adaptive strategy for females to affect brood reduction.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Biology letters / Royal Society [Londen] - London
Publication
London : 2011
ISSN
1744-9561 [print]
1744-957X [online]
Volume/pages
7 :4 (2011) , p. 605-607
ISI
000292639100036
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 21.02.2011
Last edited 15.11.2022
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