Automated character check

Ersoy and colleagues used automated measurements to assay the characters of each young and old pink knots. Younger pink knots had been outlined as birds arriving within the Wadden Sea for the primary time of their lives, after departing from the tundra the place they hatch. Captured birds had been positioned briefly in a tent containing sand-filled trays and a recording digital camera with a chook’s-eye view of the whole tent. A pc algorithm makes use of the footage to find out how a lot the birds have moved across the tent. Exploratory sorts simply cowl 200 meters inside 20 minutes within the tent, hopping from one tray to the following. The inactive knots typically stay on one of many trays till they’re launched.

Constant outcomes

“This computerized check has confirmed to be a dependable technique to examine the characters of the knots,” stated the check’s creator, behavioural ecologist Allert Bijleveld of NIOZ. “Once we put grownup birds within the tent at intervals of days, weeks and months, the pc involves the identical conclusion on character. However after we repeatedly topic younger birds to the check, they aren’t but constant of their measured character,” Bijleveld stated.

Character and meals selection

Character can also be associated to meals selection, in response to the researchers. Exploratory sorts are consistently searching for the very best meals: prey that are simple to digest. Sadly, prime quality prey similar to shrimp and thin-shelled bivalves are troublesome to seek out. Conversely, extra passive birds are glad with prey which can be tougher to digest, however simpler to seek out, similar to shellfish with comparatively little meat and plenty of shell. Bijleveld: “From the traces left within the birds’ blood by their food plan, we may see that the older birds, with a constant character, are additionally constant of their meals selection. Younger birds not solely have a much less constant character however are additionally far more variable of their food plan. They appear to experiment by attempting completely different prey, even seaweed.”

First experiences

Based mostly on the outcomes of their character assays, Ersoy and colleagues conclude of their article that the character of the pink knot is fashioned within the first 12 months of life. The character of younger birds is formed by their preliminary experiences within the Wadden Sea, following their arrival from the tundra breeding grounds, the place their first sustenance primarily consisted of bugs. After they return to the Wadden Sea in subsequent years, they’ve seemingly fashioned meals preferences and developed their character accordingly.

Flexibility

For Bijleveld, this analysis is one other step ahead in assembling the complicated puzzle of wader behaviour. “It’s fascinating to see how younger birds nonetheless react flexibly to their atmosphere and older birds have extra fastened patterns. How this matches right into a broader evolutionary image, by way of flexibility to a altering atmosphere, is an open however attention-grabbing query. Apparently, it pays off to specialize over time. In a quickly altering atmosphere, it’ll due to this fact be the younger birds that may adapt most simply to a brand new state of affairs with, for instance, very completely different meals.”