Phaeomelanin matters: Redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and feather corticosterone in male scops owls (Otus scops)

Individuals within populations often show consistent variation in behavioural and physiological traits which are frequently inter-correlated, potentially leading to phenotypic integration. Understanding the mechanisms behind such integration is a key task in evolutionary ecology, and melanin based c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-11, Vol.15 (11), p.e0241380-e0241380
Main Authors: Cruz-Miralles, Ángel, Avilés, Jesús M, Chastel, Olivier, Expósito-Granados, Mónica, Parejo, Deseada
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Aggressiveness
Analysis
Animal coloration
Animal feathers
Animals
Behavior
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Birds
Color
Corticosterone
Corticosterone - metabolism
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Evolution
Feathers
Feathers - physiology
Female
Females
Hypotheses
Integration
Male
Males
Melanin
Melanins - metabolism
Models, Statistical
Morphology
Nesting Behavior
Nests
Otus scops
Owls
Parental behavior
Phenotypes
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Pigmentation - physiology
Plumage
Stress, Physiological
Strigiformes - physiology
Territorial behavior
Territoriality
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Summary:Individuals within populations often show consistent variation in behavioural and physiological traits which are frequently inter-correlated, potentially leading to phenotypic integration. Understanding the mechanisms behind such integration is a key task in evolutionary ecology, and melanin based colouration has been suggested to play a pivotal role. In birds, most of plumage colour variation is determined by two types of melanin, eumelanin and phaeomelanin, but the role of phaeomelanin in avian phenotype integration has been barely investigated. Here, we test for covariation between phaeomelanin-based colouration, behavioural traits (i.e. nest territoriality, aggressiveness, breath rate and parental behaviour) and corticosterone in feathers in the polymorphic scops owl Otus scops, a bird species in which more phaeomelanic individuals display reddish colourations. In males, we observed that reddish males took longer to return to their nests and showed higher levels of feather CORT than more greyish ones. Behaviour and feather CORT were not associated to plumage colour in females. The found associations between redness, behaviour and feather CORT in males, but not in females, might suggest the existence of a sex-specific integrated phaeomelanic phenotype in scops owls.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0241380