incubation | bullab

Shorebird incubation

We are leading a comparative project bringing together shorebirdologists from various parts of the Globe to explore the diversity of shorebird incubation rhythms.

First, we collected data on biparentally incubating shorebirds and showed unexpected between- and within-species diversity of incubation rhythms and that latitudinal cline in diel-light changes and anti-predation strategy of the species shape the rhythms (see the paper and the blog-post on how this came to be).

Left - map depicts study sites color-coded according to genera. Middle - example of incubation rhythms. Right - Evolutionary change in a period of a rhythm and in a median incubation bout length.

Second, we are further exploring the data on biparental shorebirds to reveal between-sex differences as well as within-pair variability in incubation.

Preliminary results show that across individuals and species incubation bouts of ♀️ and ♂️ largely positively correlate.

Third, we are collecting data on uniparentally incubating shorebirds to reveal the variability of uniparental incubation rhythms and explore how such rhythms are constrained.

The map depicts sites where data on given species (color) were collected.

Egg turning

Using multisensory egg-loggers and cameras, we study how birds turn their eggs—and what different egg-turning behaviors mean for embryo development and hatching success. #### ZOO EGG Martin Sládeček i helping ZOOs to optimise their use of incubators by utilising their long-term data updated with new insights from multisensory egg-loggers and cameras. Martin is developing and app for smooth data entry and a program that will guide the animal care takers. As such the project will not only help to ZOOs but digitize the readily available data on artificial incubation.