A marker of biological ageing predicts adult risk preference in European starlings, <i>Sturnus vulgaris</i>.

ABSTRACT: Why are some individuals more prone to gamble than others? Animals often show preferences between 2 foraging options with the same mean reward but different degrees of variability in the reward, and such risk preferences vary between individuals. Previous attempts to explain variation in risk preference have focused on energy budgets, but with limited empirical support. Here, we consider whether biological ageing, which affects mortality and residual reproductive value, predicts risk preference. We studied a cohort of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in which we had previously measured developmental erythrocyte telomere attrition, an established integrative biomarker of biological ageing. We measured the adult birds' preferences when choosing between a fixed amount of food and

SUBMITTER: Andrews C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5946890 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature