Growth and energetics of a small shorebird species in a cold environment: the little stint Calidris minuta on the Taimyr Peninsula, Siberia

摘要

The little stint Calidris minuta is one of the smallest shorebird species breeding in the Arctic (weighing 4.3 g onhatching). Their chicks are small and have a high surface area-to-volume ratio. We determined prefledginggrowth, energy expenditure and time budgets for little stint chicks in northwestern Taimyr, Siberia. A modifiedpower curve was introduced to model the relationship between daily energy expenditure and body mass. Totalmetabolisable energy, TME, over the 15-d prefledging period was 107% greater than the allometric predictionfor a bird the size of a little stint. Their growth rate coefficient was 14% greater than the prediction for a birdtheir size. The growth of young chicks was reduced in cool weather, possibly due to a reduction in foraging timein order to be brooded and reduced food availability which impact foraging efficiency. We did not detectweather effects on energy expenditure of chicks, but lack of temperature variation during energy expendituremeasurements may have prevented this. In sum, both growth rate coefficient and energy expenditure of littlestint chicks were greater than predicted and this is similar to that observed in other arctic shorebird species.