Measuring embryonic heart rate of wild birds: an opportunity to take the pulse on early development

Embryonic heart rate has the potential to provide great insight into physiological variation and ontogenic status in early development. The availability of a relatively inexpensive and portable piece of equipment – the Buddy egg monitor (Vetronic Services, UK), provides the opportunity to measure embryonic heart rate non-invasively in the field. Here we demonstrate the application of this equipment in the climatically harsh Australian outback. We characterize variation in embryonic heart rate in the zebra finch with respect to a range of abiotic and biotic variables. Heart rate increased throughout embryonic development and was positively correlated with ambient temperature. There was a strong effect of the nest of origin but no clear effect of laying order, or egg size, on embryonic heart rate. Our results demonstrate the sensitivity of embryonic heart rate to environmental conditions, and/or natal origin. We review studies that have used the digital egg monitor, and in discussing our ...

胚胎心率（embryonic heart rate）有望为早期发育阶段的生理变异和个体发育状态（ontogenic status）提供深刻见解。相对经济且便携的设备——Buddy卵监测仪（Vetronic Services，英国）的问世，为野外非侵入性（non-invasively）测量胚胎心率提供了契机。本文展示了该设备在气候恶劣的澳大利亚内陆地区的应用。我们针对一系列非生物和生物变量，刻画了斑胸草雀（zebra finch）胚胎心率的变异特征。胚胎心率在整个发育过程中逐渐升高，且与环境温度呈正相关。巢穴起源对胚胎心率有显著影响，但产卵顺序或卵大小未表现出明确效应。我们的结果表明，胚胎心率对环境条件和/或出生地起源（natal origin）具有敏感性。我们回顾了使用数字卵监测仪的相关研究，并在讨论我们的...