Theses.Gla.Ac.Uk/937

CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Glasgow Theses Service Donaldson, Christine (2009) Post-natal environmental effects on behaviour in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/937/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Post-natal environmental effects on behaviour in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata ) Christine Elizabeth Donaldson Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences University of Glasgow March 2009 Candidate’s declaration I declare that the work recorded in this thesis is entirely my own unless otherwise stated, and that it is of my own composition. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree. Christine Donaldson March 2009 Acknowledgements To my two excellent supervisors, Neil Metcalfe and Pat Monaghan, an enormous thank you for all the time, help and support you’ve given throughout this project. I feel hugely lucky to have worked alongside such highly respected professors, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, not least because of your encouragement and inspiration. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council funded this work and I am very grateful to them for the opportunity to develop my skills by working on such an interesting project. Sincere thanks also to all the people who were invaluable in experimental design and data collection: François Criscuolo, Karen Spencer, Kate Griffiths, Jana Skorpilova, Charlotte Hobbins, Audrey Proust and Davina Hill. Also to Kate Arnold and Neil Evans who made important comments on various chapters and manuscripts. I am also massively grateful to all the technical and administrative staff that have helped me along the way, some keeping birds, others finding unusual pieces of equipment for peculiar experiments, and yet others printing my thesis. Every one of you has made working at Glasgow an absolute pleasure; John Laurie, Karen McLachlan, Dorothy Armstrong, Phang Wai San, Michael Wilkinson, Pat McLaughlin, Graham Adam, Graham Law, Alastair Kirk, Florence McGarrity and Lorna Kennedy. Also my thanks to David Boyd and Alan Pringle, the two friendliest and most helpful janitors anyone could ever wish to meet. Huge thanks to all my office mates over the years; Karen Millidine, Donald Reid, Pierre Bize, Will Miles, Who Seung Lee, Tim Burton, Craig Walling and Kong Tharapoom, who kept me sane with tea, chat and chocolate, helped me with stats, and put up with all manner of weird and wonderful workshop items being stored in their space, not to mention the frequent outbursts of rage following the regular breakdown of my computer. I know Karen will join me in hoping that although the office will now be girl free, our feminine influence will live on, and statistical analysis will not be conducted wearing only pants. I thank my parents and sisters for their constant support and love; for listening to me talk continuously about birds; and for all their visits to Glasgow. Thanks also to my in-laws, who have similarly endured endless animal themed conversations, and are always rooting for me. Massive thanks to my great friend Ben Miller for taking on the mammoth task of checking this thesis for mistakes, may his highlighter pen never falter. And to all the friends here not previously mentioned, each and every one of whom has helped to make my time at Glasgow immensely happy and rewarding: My gym and cheese buddy Sunny Townsend, fellow demonstrating stalwart Patrick Walsh, ‘tit man’ Steve Larcombe, dancing queen Ashley Le Vin, kindred follower of the personality grail Katherine Herborn, Lindsay Henderson of ‘seal’ hilarity, super-cool Tony Robertson, and the original Chris, Chris Foote, not to mention Douglas Kerlin, Anaid Diaz , Tom Pike, Liliana D’Alba, Claire Marsden, Liz Masden, Nick Beevers, Peter Hoebe and LuLu de Lourdez Ruiz. Thank you all. I wish you all love, happiness and success in your future lives. And finally, to my wonderful husband Ally, who has uncomplainingly driven through the rain night after night to collect me, provided hot meals at all sorts of anti-social hours, and over these last months, has spent the majority of his evenings alone; I couldn’t have done it without you. Contents Contents Page List of figures 3 List of tables 5 Thesis abstract 6 Chapter 1. General Introduction 8 References 16 Chapter 2. Early nutritional stability shapes personality in the 22 zebra finch Abstract 22 Introduction 23 Methods 25 Results 30 Discussion 43 References 47 Chapter 3. The effect of early corticosterone exposure on adult 53 personality in the zebra finch Abstract 53 Introduction 54 Methods 56 Results 58 Discussion 69 References 74 1 Contents Chapter 4. Early nutritional quality affects adult performance 80 in a simple learning task Abstract 80 Introduction 81 Methods 83 Results 87 Discussion 90 References 94 Chapter 5. Early stress impairs learning and memory in adult 97 zebra finches Abstract 97 Introduction 98 Methods 99 Results 101 Discussion 107 References 111 Chapter 6. The effect of early growth and nutrition on adult 115 behaviour in the zebra finch Abstract 115 Introduction 116 Methods 118 Results 121 Discussion 123 References 127 2 Contents Chapter 7. Does corticosterone exposure in early life affect 131 adult dominance status in the zebra finch? Abstract 131 Introduction 132 Methods 134 Results 136 Discussion 138 References 142 Chapter 8. General Discussion 147 References 154 Appendix 1 159 List of figures Fig. 2.1. Layout of novel environment test cage. 29 Fig. 2.2. Body mass gain of chicks during and after diet manipulation. 31 Fig. 2.3. Relationship between land latencies 1 and 2 in novel 35 object trials. Fig. 2.4. The distribution of PCA scores for boldness and activity 38 Fig. 2.5. Boldness scores at 40 days for all diet treatments. 40 Fig. 2.6. Boldness scores at 40 days and at adulthood for the 42 different diet consistencies 3 Contents Fig. 2.7. Boldness scores at 40 days and at adulthood shown 43 separately for each sex. Fig. 3.1. Growth rate of control and CORT birds both during 61 and after manipulation. Fig. 3.2. Relationship between body weight and personality 66 scores at 80 days. Fig. 3.3. Relationship between relative growth during treatment 67 and relative boldness at 80 days. Fig. 3.4. Personality scores for control and CORT males tested at 68 80 days and again at 9 months. Fig. 4.1. Number of birds to successfully complete cognitive training 88 shown according to diet treatment during the first 15 days of life. Fig. 5.1. Relationship between individual search times in presentation A 103 and presentation B for control and CORT birds in both spatial and visual learning tests. Fig. 5.2. Mistakes made by control and CORT birds in each trial of the 104 spatial learning test. Fig. 5.3. Mistakes made by control and CORT birds in each trial of the 106 visual learning test. Fig. 6.1. Schematic of priority of access test cage. 119 Fig. 6.2. Proportion of individual interactions won in relation to diet 122 consistency. 4 Contents Fig. 6.3. Relationship between mass gain and proportion of time spent 123 at viewing window. Fig. 7.1. Interactions won by control and CORT treated adults under 137 predictable and unpredictable diet treatments. Fig. 7.2. Interactions won by offspring of control or CORT treated 138 parents under predictable and unpredictable diet treatments. List of tables Table 2.1. Behavioural correlations observed in novel object trials 1 34 and 2 for birds raised on different diet treatments. Table 2.2. Behavioural correlations observed in novel environment 36 trial for birds raised on different diet treatments. Table 2.3. Principal component analysis of personality measures for 37 birds raised on different diet treatments. Table 3.1. Behavioural correlations observed in novel object trials 1 62 and 2 for control and CORT treated birds. Table 3.2. Behavioural correlations observed in novel environment trial 63 for control and CORT treated birds. Table 3.3. Principal component analysis of behavioural measures for 64 control and CORT treated birds. 5 Thesis Abstract ABSTRACT Due to mounting evidence that the early environment experienced by a juvenile can affect the morphology and physiology of the adult, there is currently great interest in how environmental variability may shape the behavioural phenotype, and whether such shaping has adaptive benefits. It is clear for example that the developmental environment will have immediate effects on an animal in terms of its survival and performance. Individuals with access to little food or exposed to high levels of predation will have lower survival, and resource-poor surroundings may mean that a young individual is unable to forage successfully, or disperse as normal. However, there is now increasing evidence to suggest that early environmental conditions are also important in determining the success of the adult, meaning that experiences during early development can have significant long-term effects. In this thesis, I consider the effects of diet quality and exposure to stress in postnatal life on behavioural traits in adulthood, using the zebra finch ( Taeniopygia guttata ) as a model species.

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