State-dependent decisions in long-term fasting king penguins, Aptenodytes patagonicus, during courtship and incubation
Using an automatic identification and weighing system, we investigated changes in adult body mass in relation to reproductive behaviour during courtship and incubation in free-living king penguins. Despite stressful nutritional conditions and variability of fast length, the majority of pairs incubated successfully by accumulating large body reserves before fasting, which provided flexibility in fasting strategies. […]
The link between metabolic rate and body temperature in galliform birds in thermoneutral and heat exposure conditions: The classical and phylogenetically corrected approach
Three galliform species (grey partridges, ring-necked pheasants, and king quail) were involved in body temperature and resting metabolic rate measurements over a broad range of ambient temperatures (20-45 degrees C). At thermoneutrality, inter-species differences in colonic temperature, as well as in metabolic rate, were observed. During heat exposure, all species reacted by elevating their body […]
Role of Brazilian zoos in ex situ bird conservation: from 1981 to 2005
Zoos may play an important role in conservation when they maintain and breed large numbers of animals that are threatened with extinction. Bird conservation is in a privileged situation owing to the extensive biological information available about this class. Annual inventories produced by the “Sociedade de Zoológicos do Brasil” in the years 1981, 1990, 2000, […]
Feeding behavior, aggression, and the conservation biology of flamingos: Integrating studies of captive and free-ranging birds
Flamingos (Aves, Phoenicopteridae) represent an ancient lineage of long-legged, microphagous, colonial wading birds. Although often perceived as tropical, flamingo distribution is more closely tied to the great deserts of the world, and to hypersaline sites, than it is to equatorial regions. Many aspects of flamingo behavior and ecology can be studied in captivity. Experimental studies […]
The king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus, a non-nesting bird which selects its breeding habitat
Birds are expected to choose their breeding sites according to ‘ideal’ distribution models (Fretwell & Lucas 1970), so that their reproductive output is maximized (Cody 1985). However, studies of breeding habitat selection hitherto conducted on birds have only concerned true nesting species, that is, species that incubate their eggs in a nest or in a […]
Genetic guidelines for captive breeding and reintroductions of the endangered Black-fronted Piping Guan, Aburria jacutinga (galliformes, cracidae), an Atlantic Forest endemic
A new marker based on the avian spindlin gene that is able to sex most birds, including species problematic to sex with CHD markers
We have developed a new marker (Z43B) that can be successfully used to identify the sex of most birds (69%), including species difficult or impossible to sex with other markers. We utilized the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata EST microsatellite sequence (CK309496) which displays sequence homology to the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of the avian spindlin […]