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。对于鸣禽而言，生命早期的食物供给状况会影响成年后的生理状态与认知能力，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，这些均是影响进化适合度的关键因素——相关影响却几乎未受到关注。本研究以岩鸽（Columba livia）为研究对象，将其分为三组饲养：一组为自由采食组，另外两组均处于食物质量匮乏与数量受限的饲养条件中；该两组的食物限制干预分别在孵化后持续26天或8天，且干预的严重程度存在细微差异。本研究在半自然环境中，分析了岩鸽成年后的生长状况与繁殖行为。食物质量匮乏与数量受限（Impoverished and Restricted Food, IRF）会对成年个体的体重、配对行为、雄性求偶行为与雌性被求偶状态产生负面影响，并诱导不完全补偿性生长。进一步分析表明，IRF对行为的影响可能源于其对体重的强烈作用，或许也与补偿性生长带来的有害效应有关。该研究结果证实，生命早期的不良环境会对繁殖成功率产生负面影响：对产卵量的显著影响即可佐证这一点，而这极有可能会降低个体的终身进化适合度。对雄性求偶行为的有害影响表明，IRF可通过不同于鸣禽鸣唱研究中提出的认知受损路径来影响性展示行为——因为岩鸽的求偶行为并非后天习得的。