Sex and morph variation in activity from early ontogeny to maturity in ruffs (Calidris pugnax)

Intraspecific variation provides the substrate for the evolution of organisms. Ruffs show exceptional phenotypic variation in physiology, appearance and behaviour linked to variation between sexes and male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs). The male ARTs are associated with the evolution of separate morphs, which are encoded by an autosomal supergene. However, the effects of the supergene on females and chicks are much less well understood. In particular, it is still unknown, whether females also show morph-specific behavioural variation, when behavioural differences emerge during ontogeny, and whether behavioural differences can be detected outside of the breeding context. To address these knowledge gaps, we repeatedly measured the activity in an unfamiliar environment, also known as exploration behaviour, of 109 hand-raised young ruffs throughout their first two years of life. We used automated tracking in an open field arena, and quantified the distance moved within 10 minutes ..., Study population
We conducted this study using a captive population of ruffs at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Seewiesen, Germany over three consecutive breeding seasons (2021-2023). The founder individuals (Independents and Satellites) of this population were provided by David Lank who raised ruffs from eggs collected near Oulu, Finland, in 1985, 1989, and 1990 (Lank et al. 2013) and maintained a captive population many years at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Two Faeder males that were captured in the Netherlands were added to the population in 2006 (Lank et al. 2013), before the birds were translocated to Seewiesen in 2019. We supplemented the population with further adult ruffs obtained from ruff breeders and zoological gardens in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We incubated eggs artificially, and hand-raised chicks. After hatching, we collected a blood sample (5-10μl) to determine sex and morph using diagnostic single nuc..., , # Sex and morph variation in activity from early ontogeny to maturity in ruffs (Calidris pugnax)

---

**Note:** AUE stands for “Activity in an Unfamiliar Environment”

## Provided files:

### Trex.run analysis:

* **example_videos.zip**: some example raw videos
* **trex_overview.xlsx**: an excel sheet with manual checks and corrections for each video/trajectory
* **trex_output.zip**: a zip folder containing:
* all csv files containing the coordinates of the raw (**trexsheets_origianls**) and undistorted trajectories(**trexsheets_undistorted**)
* background images created by Trex, raw (**bg_images_origianls**) and undistorted (**bg_images_undistorted**)
* **undistort_csvpng_px.py**: the python script to undistort the trexsheets and bg_images
* **arena_size_click_coding.py**: the python script to extract the coordinates of the arena borders to determine correct arena size (slight differences in camera hight between rooms and years)
* **click_coordinates.zip**: a zip folder containin...