UoB University Graduate School
Optimization of eggs crypsis: a substrate choice experiment in Japanese quail
Eggshell colour primary role is maintaining eggs crypsis and enhancing clutch survival. The nest-crypsis hypothesis proposes that predators would detect conspicuous nests before eggs, thus no selection for egg crypsis would exist. However, ground-nesting species would lay eggs that match nest background. Using artificially colored eggs, many studies have failed to show any role of egg crypsis contrary to others that found a positive relationship between clutch survival and naturally pigmented eggs. Predation risk and egg rejection are the two main behaviors tested in the context of egg crypsis, but only few studies have looked at how eggshell patterns match nest background. The aim of this study is to investigate whether females make a choice of the substrate they lay on, in an experimental design using the Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), a species that lay brown spotted eggs and where eggshell appearance remains constant, despite female condition variations. Adult females were individually housed and given the choice of 8 plain or patterned substrates (mimicking eggshell background or spots appearance) to lay on for one week. Here I show a composite image of the eggs laid on the experimental substrates chosen by the females.
Camille Duval
PhD
Life and Environmental Sciences
Optimization of eggs crypsis: a substrate choice experiment in Japanese quail
Eggshell colour primary role is maintaining eggs crypsis and enhancing clutch survival. The nest-crypsis hypothesis proposes that predators would detect conspicuous nests before eggs, thus no selection for egg crypsis would exist. However, ground-nesting species would lay eggs that match nest background. Using artificially colored eggs, many studies have failed to show any role of egg crypsis contrary to others that found a positive relationship between clutch survival and naturally pigmented eggs. Predation risk and egg rejection are the two main behaviors tested in the context of egg crypsis, but only few studies have looked at how eggshell patterns match nest background. The aim of this study is to investigate whether females make a choice of the substrate they lay on, in an experimental design using the Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), a species that lay brown spotted eggs and where eggshell appearance remains constant, despite female condition variations. Adult females were individually housed and given the choice of 8 plain or patterned substrates (mimicking eggshell background or spots appearance) to lay on for one week. Here I show a composite image of the eggs laid on the experimental substrates chosen by the females.
Camille Duval
PhD
Life and Environmental Sciences