Behavioural responses to heat in an arid-zone bird vary with thermal, hygric and social factors

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Abstract
The severity of fitness costs resulting from behavioural trade-offs between heat dissipation and activities such as foraging is increasing with advancing climate change. In terrestrial habitats, shade and water may buffer individuals from the negative effects of heat exposure, as may load-lightening in group-living species. We tested the hypothesis that thermal and hygric properties of home ranges (shade and water availability) and social factors (group size) influence the costs associated with hot weather, using a population of white-browed sparrow-weavers ( Plocepasser mahali ) in the southern Kalahari Desert. Across all sparrow-weaver groups, heat avoidance (shade-seeking) and dissipation (panting) behaviours increased with increasing air temperature ( T air ), whereas foraging declined. Birds occupying shadier home ranges delayed the onset of panting to higher T air and foraged less while maintaining overall peck rates. Birds with access to water foraged more, maintained higher peck rates and sought shade at higher T air compared to birds without. However, they did not pant more, making the mechanism underpinning their increased foraging effort unclear. Birds in larger groups both panted more overall and sought shade at lower T air than birds in smaller groups but maintained similar overall peck rates. Taken together, these results suggest birds in shadier home ranges can forage more efficiently, buffering foraging costs at high T air . Our data therefore suggest that some impacts of increasing T air under climate change can be buffered by shade availability, but the impacts of water availability and social factors are less clear.
Funding Information
  • National Research Foundation (204221942)
  • University of Pretoria

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