Purple Crowned Fairy Wren Telomere dynamics and lifespan

In
our longitudinal study, we examined life-long telomere dynamics in wild purple
crowned fairy wrens (Malurus coronatus coronatus) from early life (the
time of near complete skeletal growth (age seven days)) and at various points
thereafter (~ one to ten years of age). Purple crowned fairy wrens are
cooperatively breeding birds that are highly philopatric with a maximum
recorded lifespan of 14 years (Peters, unpublished data). We focus our work on
the threatened, western sub-species that is restricted to riparian vegetation
dominated by Pandanus aquaticus the tropical savannahs of far-north
Western Australia. We utilised a high-quality, long-term dataset (>15 years)
including lifespan and complete life-history information for several cohorts.
These data enabled us to examine the relationship between telomere length,
rates of telomere shortening at different life stages and individual lifespan.
Our approach involved a within-subject
centering analyses (using delta and average age) that allowed us to simultaneously
test the association of lifespan with telomere length and telomere dynamics.