Michaela
Hau Lab
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
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projectHow is highly flexible (opportunistic) breeding achieved?
In environments where the climate is unpredictable, animals cannot use a regular seasonal breeding strategy, but instead have to opportunistically breed whenever environmental conditions improve. Opportunistic breeders therefore do not rely much on photoperiodic cues but instead depend on short-term factors that signal local environmental conditions such as rainfall, food abundance, temperature, etc. One of the prime examples for an opportunistically breeding bird, the Australian Zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) achieves this flexibility by maintaining the reproductive system in an activated state year-round. It has previously been assumed that the physiological system of opportunistic breeders is organized differently than that of a seasonal breeder. However, new findings on Zebra finches and other opportunists such as Crossbills (Loxia spp., for example work by Tom Hahn) suggest that this might not be the case. We are currently testing this question on Darwin's finches, and in collaboration with Nicole Perfito and Richard Zann, also on Zebra finches in the wild and in the laboratory.
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