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27 August 2019 Sex-Related Spatial Variation in the Heterophil-To-Lymphocyte Ratio of Breeding Great Tits Parus major
Joanna Skwarska, Mirosława Bańbura, Michał Glądalski, Adam Kaliński, Marcin Markowski, Jarosław Wawrzyniak, Piotr Zieliński, Jerzy Bańbura
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Abstract

Enduring changes in the surrounding environment cause long-term stress in birds, which can affect the activity of the immune system and lead to changes in heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (H:L). The aim of this paper is to investigate if the H:L ratios of male and female Great Tits Parus major during the first breeding attempt differ between two sites of dissimilar habitats – an urban parkland site and a deciduous forest site. In the final model we found a difference between sites, while separate submodels for the study sites showed that females had higher H:L ratio than males in the urban parkland site, with the opposite result being found in the forest site. We suppose that the pattern of variation in H:L ratios we found may result from greater parental expenditures of females as compared to males. Such difference in the H:L ratio between habitats could be the reason for the substantial difference in trophic conditions between the forest and park areas during the breeding of tits.

Joanna Skwarska, Mirosława Bańbura, Michał Glądalski, Adam Kaliński, Marcin Markowski, Jarosław Wawrzyniak, Piotr Zieliński, and Jerzy Bańbura "Sex-Related Spatial Variation in the Heterophil-To-Lymphocyte Ratio of Breeding Great Tits Parus major," Acta Ornithologica 54(1), 133-138, (27 August 2019). https://doi.org/10.3161/00016454AO2019.54.1.011
Received: 1 February 2019; Accepted: 1 June 2019; Published: 27 August 2019
KEYWORDS
H:L ratio
long-term stress
Parus major
physiological condition
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