Extremely low Plasmodium prevalence in wild plovers and coursers from Cape Verde and Madagascar

Martínez-de la Puente J, Eberhart-Phillips L, Cristina Carmona-Isunza M, et al. Extremely low Plasmodium prevalence in wild plovers and coursers from Cape Verde and Madagascar. Malaria Journal. 2017;16(1): 243

Successful breeding predicts divorce in plovers

When individuals breed more than once, parents are faced with the choice of whether to re-mate with their old partner or divorce and select a new mate. Evolutionary theory predicts that, following successful reproduction with a given partner, that partner should be retained for future reproduction. However, recent work in a polygamous bird, has instead indicated that successful parents divorced more often than failed breeders (Halimubieke et al. in Ecol Evol 9:10734–10745, 2019), because one parent can benefit by mating with a new partner and reproducing shortly after divorce. Here we investigate whether successful breeding predicts divorce using data from 14 well-monitored populations of plovers (Charadrius spp.). We show that successful nesting leads to divorce, whereas nest failure leads to retention of the mate for follow-up breeding. Plovers that divorced their partners and simultaneously deserted their broods produced more offspring within a season than parents that retained their mate. Our work provides a counterpoint to theoretical expectations that divorce is triggered by low reproductive success, and supports adaptive explanations of divorce as a strategy to improve individual reproductive success. In addition, we show that temperature may modulate these costs and benefits, and contribute to dynamic variation in patterns of divorce across plover breeding systems

Courtship behavior differs between monogamous and polygamous plovers

Courting, accessing, and/or competing for mates are involved in sexual selection by generating differences in mating success. Although courtship behavior should reflect intensity of mating competition and sexual selection, studies that compare courtship behavior across populations/species with different mating systems subject to differing degrees of mating competition are scanty. Here, we compare courtship behavior between two closely related plover species (Charadrius spp.): a polygamous population of snowy plovers and a socially monogamous population of Kentish plovers. Consistently with expectations, both males and females spent more time courting in the polygamous plover than in the monogamous one. In addition, courtship behavior of males relative to females increased over the breeding season in the polygamous plover, whereas it did not change in the monogamous one. Our results therefore suggest that courtship behavior is a fine-tuned and informative indicator of sexual selection in nature

Author Correction: Successful breeding predicts divorce in plovers (Scientific Reports, (2020), 10, 1, (15576), 10.1038/s41598-020-72521-6)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.</jats:p

Camouflage and Clutch Survival in Plovers and Terns

Animals achieve camouflage through a variety of mechanisms, of which background matching and disruptive coloration are likely the most common. Although many studies have investigated camouflage mechanisms using artificial stimuli and in lab experiments, less work has addressed camouflage in the wild. Here we examine egg camouflage in clutches laid by ground-nesting Snowy Plovers Charadrius nivosus and Least Terns Sternula antillarum breeding in mixed aggregations at Bahía de Ceuta, Sinaloa, Mexico. We obtained digital images of clutches laid by both species. We then calibrated the images and used custom computer software and edge detection algorithms to quantify measures related to three potential camouflage mechanisms: pattern complexity matching, disruptive effects and background color matching. Based on our image analyses, Snowy Plover clutches, in general, appeared to be more camouflaged than Least Tern clutches. Snowy Plover clutches also survived better than Least Tern clutches. Unexpectedly, variation in clutch survival was not explained by any measure of egg camouflage in either species. We conclude that measures of egg camouflage are poor predictors of clutch survival in this population. The behavior of the incubating parents may also affect clutch predation. Determining the significance of egg camouflage requires further testing using visual models and behavioral experiments