Search results for "Flamingo"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
Very high MHC Class IIB diversity without spatial differentiation in the mediterranean population of greater Flamingos.
2017
WOS: 000397335400001
Environmental impacts on wetland birds: long-term monitoring programmes in the Camargue, France.
2010
10 pages; International audience; Wetlands in the Mediterranean area have become a rare habitat due to human impact. To model the ecology and breeding biology of birds depending on that habitat, we describe long-term studies on two wetland birds (Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus (ruber) roseus) in the Camargue, France. The hydrological conditions in natural Mediterranean wetlands depend largely on the pattern of rainfall (winter) and evapotranspiration (summer), but have been substantially altered by human activities. In natural conditions, these wetlands are very diverse and therefore sustain a high diversity of breeding birds. At the same time their unpred…
Sexual display complexity varies non-linearly with age and predicts breeding status in greater flamingos.
2016
AbstractThe long-lived greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is famous for performing conspicuous group displays during which adults try to acquire a new mate each year with varying success. We examined variation in the sexual display complexity (SDC) of wild flamingos aged between 4 and 37 yrs. SDC was defined as the product of richness (the number of different display movements) and versatility (the number of transitions between movements) within a 5 min behavioral sequence. In both sexes, date in the pairing season had a linear and positive effect on SDC, whereas age had a quadratic effect, with SDC increasing until about age 20yrs, and declining afterwards. SDC better explained pairi…
Local Recruitment in the Greater Flamingo: A New Approach Using Capture- Mark-Recapture Data
1997
International audience; Although the establishment of new individuals in the breeding component of a population is an essential feature of population regulation, only a few attempts have been made to test biological hypotheses about recruitment. Most previous studies rely on ad hoc calculations or are flawed with unwarranted assumptions about survival. We use a recently developed approach, based on capture-mark-recapture, in which analysis of local recruitment is similar to a time-reversed analysis of survival. The basic data set consists of capture histories viewed in reverse order, with initial capture at year of birth, and subsequent observations corresponding to years when the animal ha…
Lateralization of complex behaviours in wild greater flamingos.
2018
8 pages; International audience; Lateralization refers to the preferential use of one side of the body to perform certain tasks, often as a consequence of the specialization of cerebral hemispheres. Individuals may benefit from lateralization if it allows them to perform complex tasks simultaneously. Studies on laterality further suggest that sex and age can influence the extent of lateralization. However, most studies on lateralization have been performed on captive individuals, exposed to simplified environments and expressing limited behavioural repertoire. Here, we evaluated behavioural lateralization in the greater flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus, through observations of wild individua…
Evidence of gene orthology and trans-species polymorphism, but not of parallel evolution, despite high levels of concerted evolution in the major his…
2016
17 pages; International audience; The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a cornerstone in the study of adaptive genetic diversity. Intriguingly, highly polymorphic MHC sequences are often not more similar within species than between closely related species. Divergent selection of gene duplicates, balancing selection maintaining trans-species polymorphism (TSP) that predate speciation and parallel evolution of species sharing similar selection pressures can all lead to higher sequence similarity between species. In contrast, high rates of concerted evolution increase sequence similarity of duplicated loci within species. Assessing these evolutionary models remains difficult as related…
Does the potentially toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis exist in the soda lakes of East Africa?
2011
Presently, the food chains of the famous saline alkaline flamingo-lakes of East Africa are the focus of intense scientific discussion as the lakes host toxic cyanobacteria, which when consumed by Lesser Flamingos, weaken the birds and therefore make them susceptible to attacks by infective diseases. The distribution, genetic and toxicological aspects of Microcystis in Kenya has been studied extensively. Although there are reports on the occurrence of Microcystis in Kenya’s hypersaline alkaline lakes, they have not been confirmed. Our investigations carried out over a 10-year period in about 50 inland waters showed that Microcystis occurs exclusively in freshwaters, but never in the hypersal…
A multi-locus inference of the evolutionary diversification of extant flamingos (Phoenicopteridae).
2014
9 pages; International audience; BACKGROUND: Modern flamingos (Phoenicopteridae) occupy a highly specialized ecology unique among birds and represent a potentially powerful model system for informing the mechanisms by which a lineage of birds adapts and radiates. However, despite a rich fossil record and well-studied feeding morphology, molecular investigations of the evolutionary progression among modern flamingos have been limited. Here, using three mitochondrial (mtDNA) markers, we present the first DNA sequence-based study of population genetic variation in the widely distributed Chilean Flamingo and, using two mtDNA and 10 nuclear (nDNA) markers, recover the species tree and divergence…
Offspring microbiomes differ across breeding sites in a panmictic species.
2019
High dispersal rates are known to homogenize host’s population genetic structure in panmictic species and to disrupt host local adaptation to the environment. Long-distance dispersal might also spread micro-organisms across large geographical areas. However, so far, to which extent selection mechanisms that shape host’s population genetics are mirrored in the population structure of the enteric microbiome remains unclear. High dispersal rates and horizontal parental transfer may homogenize bacterial communities between breeding sites (homogeneous hypothesis). Alternatively, strong selection from the local environment may differentiate bacterial communities between breeding sites (heterogene…
Diversity and distribution of feather lice on Greater Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus) in the Camargue, southern France
2002
Feather lice were collected from 2S0 chicks of the Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus Pallas) captured alive in the Camargue, southern France, in July 1997. Five louse species were identified: Colpocephalum heterosoma Piaget, Colpocephalum salimalii Clay and Trinoton femoratum Piaget of the family Menoponidae; Anaticola phoenicopteri (Coinde) and Anatoecus pygaspis (Nitzsch [in Giebel]) of the family Philopteridae. Our collecting results also show that there is body-site segregation among the several louse species inhabiting the same host individual.