Jose O. Valdebenito

• PhD
• Universidad Austral de Chile

Males and females generally differ in resource investment strategies in order to maximise reproductive output. These strategies involve the control of important systemic processes such as self-maintenance and immune activity, which in turn could be traded-off against aspects of reproduction in a sex-specific manner. While some aspects of this immun...

Thermal traits are crucial to our understanding of the ecology and physiology of ectothermic animals. While rising global temperatures have increasingly pushed research towards the study of upper thermal limits, lower thermal limits and thermal preferences are essential for defining the thermal niche of ectotherms. Through a systematic review of th...

Neotropical shorebirds are among the least known species in the world. Recent political events involving the main breeding territories of these birds in Chile are challenging the future prospects of these lands. It is therefore essential to investigate yet missing elements of the breeding biology of all local shorebirds to generate information ahea...

Humans are radically altering global ecology, and one of the most apparent human-induced effects is urbanization, where high-density human habitats disrupt long-established ecotones. Changes to these transitional areas between organisms, especially enhanced contact among humans and wild animals, provide new opportunities for the spread of zoonotic...

Males and females often differ in ecology, behaviour and lifestyle, and these differences are expected to lead to sex differences in parasite susceptibility. However, neither the sex differences in parasite prevalence, nor their ecological and evolutionary drivers have been investigated across a broad range of taxa using phylogenetically corrected...

Gut microbiotas have important impacts on host health, reproductive success, and survival. While extensive research in mammals has identified the exogenous (e.g. environment) and endogenous (e.g. phylogeny, sex, and age) factors that shape the gut microbiota composition and functionality, yet avian systems remain comparatively less understood. Shor...

Males and females generally differ in resource investment strategies to maximise reproductive output, sometimes at the expense of important systemic processes such as self-maintenance and immune activity. Here, we used wild Lethrus apterus, a sexually dimorphic beetle with parental care, to investigate the influence of sex roles (e.g., offspring pr...

A breeding female Two-banded Plover Charadrius falklandicus was observed incubating the eggs of a Magellanic Oystercatcher Haematopus leucopodus while the nest was unattended by the oystercatcher. The behaviour was likely triggered by the plover's nest becoming momentarily inaccessible, and so, being in incubation mode, the bird responded by incuba...

With the aim of evaluating breeding site fidelity of neotropical shorebirds nesting in Magallanes, Chile, I conducted a brief fieldwork expedition across the most productive areas found during the 2022 season. I found 9 nests and captured 11 individuals of three species, including Two-banded plover (Charadrius falklandicus), Tawny-throated dotterel...

Males and females often exhibit different behaviours during mate acquisition, pair-bonding and parenting, and a convenient label to characterize these behaviours is sex role. The diverse roles that male and female shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers and allies) exhibit in mating and parenting have played a key role in advancing mainstream theories in a...

The proportion of adult males to females in the adult population, the adult sex ratio (ASR), is an important demographic parameter that has implications in sexual selection, ecology and conservation. ASR variation can be multifactorial but specific variables including sex roles –sex differences in courtship, mate competition, social pair-bonds and...

Neotropical shorebirds are among the least known charadriid species on the planet. As part of a research project investigating the breeding biology and ecoimmunology of the Two-banded plover (TBP, Charadrius falklandicus) in Chile, we conducted fieldwork between 7th October – 1st November near the locality of San Gregorio, Region of Magallanes. Tho...

Rising temperatures represent a significant threat to the survival of ectothermic animals. As such, upper thermal limits represent an important trait to assess the vulnerability of ectotherms to changing temperatures. For instance, one may use upper thermal limits to estimate current and future thermal safety margins (i.e., the proximity of upper t...

Males and females often exhibit differences in behaviour, life histories and ecology, many of which typically are reflecting in their brains. Neuronal protection and maintenance include complex processes led by the microglia, which also interacts with metabolites such as hormones or immune components. Despite increasing interest in sex-specific bra...

The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent...

The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent...

Whilst the immune system often varies seasonally and exhibits differences between males and females, the general patterns in seasonality and sex differences across taxa have remained controversial. Birds are excellent model organisms to assess these patterns, because the immune system of many species is well characterised. We conducted a meta-analy...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Sex-specific mortality is frequent in animals although the causes of different male versus female mortalities remain poorly understood. Parasitism is ubiquitous in nature with widespread detrimental effects to hosts, making parasitism a likely cause of sex-specific mortalities. Using sex-specific blood and gastrointestinal parasite prevalence from...

When individuals breed more than once, parents are faced with the choice of whether to re-mate with their old partner or divorce and select a new mate. evolutionary theory predicts that, following successful reproduction with a given partner, that partner should be retained for future reproduction. However, recent work in a polygamous bird, has ins...

Do islands harbour less diverse disease communities than mainland? The island biogeography theory predicts more diverse communities on mainland than on islands due to more niches, more diverse habitats and availability of greater range of hosts. We compared bacteria prevalences of Campylobacter, Chlamydia and Salmonella in cloacal samples of a smal...

Comparative studies of parasites in sympatric bird species have been generally scarce. Parasitic infection/transmission can be spread in a number of ways that suggests possible direct and indirect, horizontal transmission between avian hosts. In order to determine whether two sympatric icterids from Central and Southern Chile share their parasite f...

The Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor exsul is a data-deficient shorebird distributed across Eurasia and Africa. The subspecies exsul is endemic to the Cape Verde archipelago. In contrast with their mainland breeding sites, where coursers appear to be nomadic and rare throughout their range, the Cape Verde population is year-round resident an...

Social monogamy has evolved multiple times and is particularly common in birds. However, it is not well understood why some species live in long-lasting monogamous partnerships while others change mates between breeding attempts. Here, we investigate mate fidelity in a sequential polygamous shorebird, the snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus), a specie...

Avian beaks are complex and highly specialized structures that if altered could hinder many aspects of bird biology. Here, we provide evidence from incidental sightings of 24 birds from 9 species presenting a mild to severe degree of beak abnormality, including species from Passeriformes, Falconiformes, Sphenisciformes, and Charadriiformes, recorde...

With the aim to identify the parasite fauna of plumbeous rail, Pardirallus sanguinolentus (Aves: Rallidae) in Chile, 26 carcasses were parasitologically necropsied. The present study revealed the presence of 14 species of parasites (inverse Simpson index = 4.64; evenness = 0.332), including ectoparasites: feather mites: Analloptes megnini , Grallob...

To describe the parasitic community of the Magellanic Horned Owl, Bubo magellanicus (Aves, Strigiformes), 19 carcasses from central Chile were analyzed. Ectoparasites were collected through plumage inspection, while endoparasites were collected through traditional techniques of parasitological necropsy. Sixteen owls were infected with at least one...

Probiotics are usually isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. The search of probiotics in human milk is a recent field of research, as the existence of the human milk microbiome was discovered only about a decade ago. To our knowledge, no reports regarding the potential probiotic effect of bacteria from swine milk have been...

Parasite species are important components of biodiversity, as they provide valuable information about host health, evolutionary relationships, population structures, trophic interactions, the existence of environmental stresses, and climatic conditions. With the aim of describing the parasites associated with parrots of the genus Enicognathus Gray...