Data from: Organizing effects of adverse early-life condition on body mass, compensatory growth and reproduction: experimental studies in rock pigeons

Early-life food conditions can have profound impact on adult behavioural performance. In song birds, early-life food conditions affect adult physiology and cognitive performance such as song learning and spatial learning. However, effects on reproductive behaviour other than song, such as visual courtship display, pair formation, and egg laying, which are all important determinants of fitness, received hardly any attention. In this study, rock pigeons (Columba livia) were raised either in a food ad-libitum or at impoverished (quality) and restricted (quantity) food conditions, in which the latter was applied for either 26 or 8 days after hatching and in slightly different severity. Their growth and reproductive behaviour in adulthood was analysed under semi-natural conditions. Impoverished and restricted food (IRF) negatively affected adult body mass, pair-bonding behaviour, courtship (males) and being courted (females), and induced incomplete compensatory growth. Further analyses suggest that the effects of IRF on behaviour could result from the strong effects on body mass, and perhaps also from detrimental effects of compensatory growth. These results provide evidence that adverse early-life condition can negatively impact on reproductive success, as suggested by the significant effect on egg production, which will very likely lead to a lower life-time fitness. The detrimental effects on male courtship indicate that IRF can affect sexual displays via other pathways than by impaired cognition as has been suggested for bird song, since courtship in the pigeons is not learned.生命早期的食物供给状况，会对成年个体的行为表现产生深远影响。在鸣禽中，生命早期的食物条件会影响成年个体的生理机能与认知表现，例如鸣唱学习与空间学习能力。然而，除鸣唱之外的繁殖行为——诸如视觉求偶展示、配对形成与产卵等，均是进化适合度（fitness）的重要决定因素，但其相关效应却极少受到关注。本研究以原鸽（Columba livia）为实验对象，将其分为三组饲养：一组为自由采食组，另外两组分别为食物质量受限组与食物数量受限组；其中后两组的食物限制分别于孵化后26天或8天的时段内施加，且胁迫程度存在细微差异。研究人员在半自然环境下，分析了这些原鸽成年后的生长情况与繁殖行为。食物质量与数量受限（Impoverished and restricted food，以下简称IRF）处理会对成年个体体重、配对行为、雄性求偶行为与雌性被求偶行为产生负面影响，并诱导不完全代偿性生长。进一步分析表明，IRF对行为的影响可能源于其对体重的显著作用，也可能与代偿性生长带来的有害影响有关。上述结果证实，生命早期的不良环境会对繁殖成功率产生负面影响——这一点可从其对产卵量的显著影响中得到体现，而该影响极有可能降低个体的终生适合度。对雄性求偶行为的有害影响表明，IRF可通过不同于认知损伤的其他通路影响性展示行为，这与鸣禽鸣唱相关研究中提出的结论不同，因为原鸽的求偶行为并非后天习得。