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Greater energy stores enable flightless moulting geese to increase resting behaviour
Author(s) -
PORTUGAL STEVEN J.,
GREEN JONATHAN A.,
PIERSMA THEUNIS,
EICHHORN GÖTZ,
BUTLER PATRICK J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
ibis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1474-919X
pISSN - 0019-1019
DOI - 10.1111/j.1474-919x.2011.01167.x
Subject(s) - moulting , feather , waterfowl , foraging , wing , biology , predation , zoology , ecology , muda , habitat , larva , engineering , aerospace engineering
Many species of waterfowl undergo a post‐breeding simultaneous flight feather moult (wing moult) which renders them flightless and vulnerable to predation for up to 4 weeks. Here we present an analysis of the correlations between individual time‐budgets and body mass states in 13 captive Barnacle Geese Branta leucopsis throughout an entire wing moult. The daily percentage of time spent resting was positively correlated with initial body mass at the start of wing moult. Behaviour of individual birds during wing moult is dependent on initial physiological state, which may in turn be dependent on foraging ability; the storage of energy before the start of wing moult will help birds to reduce exposure to the dangers of predation.