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Testing optimal body mass theory: Evidence for cost of fat in wintering birds

C. Rogers

Published 2015 in Ecosphere

ABSTRACT

Optimal body mass models for small wintering birds are central to animal ecology, and offer insights into maximizing individual fitness in a complex environment. Such models assume both costs and benefits of fat deposition, and consider how they affect winter survival probability. Hypothesized mass-dependent costs of elevated fat include increased wing load and subsequent reduced ability to avoid predators, as well as increased predator exposure while feeding to fatten. A likely benefit of winter fat is increased fasting capacity during resource shortages. Here I test optimal body mass theory by searching for both cost and benefits of winter fattening, utilizing interspecific variation in winter fat in natural populations. If increased predation risk is a mass-dependent cost of fattening, wintering birds occupying dense (closed) winter habitat offering low exposure to predators should show (1) higher fat reserves, and (2) higher wing load, than wintering birds occupying less dense (open) habitat offering ...

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