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Comparative Study
. 2018 Jan;188(1):127-140.
doi: 10.1007/s00360-017-1103-8. Epub 2017 Jun 19.

The metabolic cost of nesting: body condition and blood parameters of Caiman crocodilus and Melanosuchus niger in Central Amazonia

José António Lemos Barão-Nóbrega  1   2 , Boris Marioni  3 , Robinson Botero-Arias  4   5 , António José Arsénia Nogueira  6   7 , Emerson Silva Lima  8 , William Ernest Magnusson  9 , Ronis Da Silveira  10 , Jaydione Luiz Marcon  11
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The metabolic cost of nesting: body condition and blood parameters of Caiman crocodilus and Melanosuchus niger in Central Amazonia

José António Lemos Barão-Nóbrega et al. J Comp Physiol B. 2018 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Although nesting ecology is well studied in several crocodilian species, it is not known how nest attendance influences physiology and body condition of nesting females. In this study, we describe body condition and serum biochemical values of nesting female, non-nesting female and male spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) and black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) in two areas of Central Amazonia. We also evaluated the effect of nest age and nest distance to water on body condition and blood parameters of nesting females. Body condition and plasmatic concentrations of glucose, triglycerides, lactate and uric acid of nesting females were significantly different from those of non-nesting females and males in C. crocodilus, but not in M. niger. Our study also demonstrated that nest age and distance to water had a negative effect on female body condition in C. crocodilus, but not in M. niger. Female C. crocodilus attending older nests or nests built further away from permanent water bodies tended to have lower body condition. Our results demonstrate that the nesting strategy of C. crocodilus has a metabolic cost associated with nest attendance for nesting females, which appear to depend on accumulated energetic reserves during nest attendance. In contrast, nest attendance had little effect on the physiology of female M. niger.

Keywords: Amazon; Blood; Body condition; Caiman; Nest; Várzea.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Data availability

The datasets during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Location of Piagaçu-Purus sustainable development reserve (PP-SDR, our main site) and Mamirauá (MSDR) sustainable development reserve, Central Amazonia
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Body condition of females captured near the nest (nesting females), females captured away from nests (non-nesting females) and males of Caiman crocodilus (Fulton’s K) in PP-SDR and Melanosuchus niger (K b) in MSDR. Each point represents a caiman
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Plasmatic concentrations of glucose (a), triglycerides (b), lactate (c) and uric acid (d) of females captured near the nest (nesting females), females captured away from nests (non-nesting females) and adult males of Caiman crocodilus in PP-SDR. Each point represents a caiman. In all four blood parameters, significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed between nesting and non-nesting caimans, but not between non-nesting females and males
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Plasmatic concentrations of glucose (a), triglycerides (b) and uric acid (c) of females captured near the nest (nesting females), females captured away from nests (non-nesting females) and males of Melanosuchus niger in MSDR. Each point represents a caiman
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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