Costs and benefits of colony size vary during the breeding cycle in Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
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Authors: | Guillaume Péron Jean-Dominique Lebreton and Pierre-André Crochet |
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Institution: | (1) Equipe Biom?trie et Biologie des Populations, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS UMR, 5175-1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France |
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Abstract: | We studied the effects of colony size on individual reproductive success in a multi-site population of Black-headed Gulls
Chroicocephalus ridibundus where colony size ranged from 10 to 5,000 pairs. By focusing on family size, the number of chicks attended by individually
marked parents, and accounting for between-individual variation, we detected a negative colony-size effect during the very
first days of life of the chicks that was compensated by a subsequent increase in the proportion of surviving chicks with
colony size. We suggest that this result originates in the interplay between overcrowding costs acting on hatching success,
and benefits of colonial breeding, most probably more efficient food-searching (foraging enhancement), acting on chick survival.
However, the frequency of complete colony failure increased with decreasing colony size. Taking this hazard risk into account
yielded a corrected estimate of the effect of colony size on breeding success, and indicated that the largest colonies were
the most productive. This pattern is congruent with the previous finding that larger colonies are more attractive to dispersing
breeders. |
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Keywords: | |
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