Piotr G. Jablonski

This is a poster presented in the poster session at the Asian Ornithological Conference 2024.

Real-world problems are traditionally viewed through a disciplinary lens at the boundary of the physical, life, mathematical and chemical sciences. The existence of these boundaries in taught classroom courses from a traditional context may be an intellectual barrier in seeking critically important hidden connectivities for problems that may have a...

Quantifying the diet of endangered species is crucial for conservation, especially for diet specialists, which can be more susceptible to environmental changes. The vulnerable fairy pitta (Pitta nympha) is considered a specialist that primarily feeds its nestlings with earthworms. However, there have been few studies of the nestling diet provisione...

Numerous non-avian dinosaurs possessed pennaceous feathers on their forelimbs (proto-wings) and tail. Their functions remain unclear. We propose that these pennaceous feathers were used in displays to flush hiding prey through stimulation of sensory-neural escape pathways in prey, allowing the dinosaurs to pursue the flushed prey. We evaluated the...

Long-term memory affects animal fitness, especially in social species. In these species, the memory of group members facilitates the acquisition of novel foraging skills through social learning when naïve individuals observe and imitate the successful foraging behavior. Long-term memory and social learning also provide the framework for cultural be...

The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius, who originated from a common ancestor 8 million years ag...

Accurate measurements of travel distance and the corresponding speed are crucial for the analysis of animal movements. Particularly, the trajectories of ants were used in numerous behavioral studies. However, measurements of travel distance involve the dilemma of setting the proper time window: Estimates from a short time window are vulnerable to s...

Current theory for surface tension-dominant jumps on water, created for small- and medium-sized water strider species and used in bioinspired engineering, predicts that jumping individuals are able to match their downward leg movement speed to their size and morphology such that they maximize the takeoff speed and minimize the takeoff delay without...

Numerous non-avian dinosaurs possessed pennaceous feathers on their forelimbs (proto-wings) and tail (caudal plumage). Their functions remain unclear. We propose that the pennaceous feathers were used in displays to flush prey through stimulation of sensory-neural escape pathways in prey, and to provide higher speed and maneuverability during pursu...

The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius , who originated from a common ancestor 8 million years a...

Numerous non-avian dinosaurs possessed pennaceous plumage in the proto-wing and tail ¹ , whose function remains unclear. We hypothesize that they might have been used during hunting that resembles avian flush-pursuers, who use wing/tail displays to flush hidden prey and pursue it 2,3 . Using a dinosaur robot, we confirmed that efficiency in flushin...

Current theory for surface tension-dominant jumps on water, created for small and medium size water strider species and used in bio-inspired engineering, predicts that jumping individuals are able to match their downward leg movement speed to their size and morphology such that they maximize the takeoff speed and minimize the takeoff delay without...

Interest in carbon materials has soared immensely, not only as a fundamental building block of life, but because its importance has been critical to the advancement of many diverse fields, from medicine to electrochemistry, which has provided much deeper appreciation of carbon functionality in forming unprecedented structures. Since functional grou...

Laws of physics shape morphological and behavioral adaptations to locomotion at different body sizes. Water striders serve as a model taxon to study how simple physical constraints of water-surface habitats affect their behavior and morphology, and hydrodynamics of rowing by midlegs on the surface is well understood. However, the physics of the sub...

Water striders, Gerridae, serve as model organisms to understand locomotion on the water surface, but only a narrow range of body sizes have been studied. The hydrodynamics of their thrust is well understood, but the subsequent sliding dynamics has been less explored. Here we create a theoretical model of sliding and use it to predict the effect of...

The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) plays a central role in understanding the optimal investment strategies to male and female offspring. Empirical studies of TWH, however, yielded conflicting results. Here, we present models to predict optimal comprehensive multi-element parental strategies composed of primary sex ratio, brood size, resource allo...

Water strider (Gerridae) morphology and behavior have become the focus of interdisciplinary research in biological diversification and bio-inspired technology. However, the diversity of behaviors and morphology of the large-sized Gerridae have not been intensely studied. Here, we provide locomotory behaviors and legs' micro-morphology of the large...

Information on the diet of endangered species is crucial in conservation, especially for diet specialists. The Fairy Pitta, Pitta nympha , is classified as “vulnerable species” by IUCN. In a field-based study on the nestlings’ diet and parental care, combined with the existing literature, we confirm pitta’s dietary specialization as vermivory and r...

The factors favoring the evolution of certain cognitive abilities in animals remain unclear. Social learning is a cognitive ability that reduces the cost of acquiring personal information and forms the foundation for cultural behavior. Theory predicts the evolutionary pressures to evolve social learning should be greater in more social species. How...

Eggshell bacterial communities may affect hatching success and nestling’s condition. Nest materials are in direct contact with the eggshells, but the relationships with the eggshell microbiome during incubation have not been fully elucidated. Here, we characterize eggshell and nest material bacterial communities and their changes during incubation...

Ecological specialists utilize a restricted range of resources and have evolved adaptations to exploit their specialized resources. For example, avian insectivores that feed nestlings with grasshoppers, beetles, or moths perform insect prey preparation before feeding nestlings so that the nestlings are able to swallow the prey. This behavior is gen...

Accurate measurements of travel distance and speed are crucial for the analysis of animal movements. Measuring the movements of ants entails measuring the change in locations registered at time intervals. This process involves the dilemma of setting the proper time window: a short time window is vulnerable to spatial errors in observation, while a...

Eggshell microbial communities may affect hatching success and nestling’s condition. Nest materials are in direct contact with the eggshells, but the relationships with the eggshell microbiome during incubation have not been fully elucidated. Here, we characterize eggshell and nest-material microbial communities and their changes during incubation...

In the Andes, pairs of ecologically similar species are often separated by narrow elevational sympatry zones but the mechanisms mediating sympatry are not fully understood. Here, we describe niche partitioning within a sympatry zone in a fragmented Andean landscape between two closely related flush-pursue species: a high-elevation montane forest dw...

Different species of water striders match leg speeds to their body sizes to maximize their jump take off velocity without breaking the water surface, which might have aided evolution of leg structures optimized for exploitation of the water surface tension. It is not understood how water striders achieve this match. Can individuals modify their leg...

Analogies across disciplines often indicate the existence of universal principles such as optimization, while the underlying proximate mechanisms may differ. It was reported recently that trails of ants refract at the border of substrates, on which walking speeds differ. This phenomenon is analogous to the travel-time-minimizing routes of light ref...

Some defended prey animals can switch on their normally hidden aposematic signals. This switching may occur in reaction to predators’ approach (pre-attack signals) or attack (post-attack signals). Switchable aposematism has been relatively poorly studied, but we can expect that it might bring a variety of benefits to an aposmetic organism. First, t...

Anti‐predatory strategies of birds are diverse and may include predator‐specific alarm calls. For example, oriental tit (Parus minor) parents can distinguish snakes from other predators and produce snake‐specific referential vocalizations ("jar" call) when a snake poses a threat to their nest. The “jar” call has a very specific function to induce f...

According to Trivers-Willard theory ¹ , females in a good condition should carry more male offspring to maximize their fitness while should carry more females in a poor condition. Diverse theoretical and empirical studies has been performed to verify the validity of this claim 2,3 . Some portion of the empirical observations, however, exhibited con...

Multiple behaviors can correlate with each other at the individual level (behavioral syndrome), and behavioral syndromes can vary in their direction between populations within a species. Within-species variation in behavioral syndromes is predicted to be associated with alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs), which evolve under different selection...

Ants are known for their collective intelligence and efficient division of labor. Therefore, observations that seem to contradict these stereotypes are worth reporting. While observing a colony of Camponotus japonicus, we discovered that workers frequently dumped protein-rich food items at a particular spot, while other workers collected the dumped...

Most amphibians migrate between flooded habitats for breeding and dry habitats for non-breeding activities, however, differences in closely related species may highlight divergent evolutionary histories. Through field surveys, Harmonic Direction Finder tracking and laboratory behavioral experiments during the wintering season, we demonstrated diffe...

Studying how metagenome composition and diversity varies along environmental gradients may improve understanding of the general principles of community and ecosystem structuring. We studied soil bacterial metagenomes along a precipitation gradient on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, varying between 500 mm and 60 mm mean annual precipitation (MAP). We f...

Animal cognitive abilities are frequently quantified in strictly controlled settings, with laboratory-reared subjects. Results from these studies have merit for clarifying proximate mechanisms of performance and the potential upper limits of certain cognitive abilities. Researchers often assume that performance on laboratory-based assessments accur...

Microhabitat segregation among grasshopper species in Asia has not been well studied. We determined the differences in the use of substrates by three common North East Asian grasshopper species co-existing on a natural meadow near Seoul, South Korea. While many Oedaleusinfernalis individuals were found on the ground, Acridacinerea and Atractomorpha...

Observations and video documentation of interactions between animals living in dens, cavities, and other enclosed spaces are difficult, but they play an important role in field biology, ecology, and conservation. For example, bird parents visiting nests and feeding their nestlings may provide crucial information for testing of ecological hypotheses...

The impact of climate change on animals has been globally documented. Especially, migration of birds has been extensively monitored as migratory birds are susceptible to any changes occurring both on breeding grounds and on wintering grounds. However, in contrast to spring migration, the patterns and the factors for autumn migration have not been w...

Abstract Bright colours in distasteful prey warn off predators, but processes associated with ontogenetic acquisition of warning colours and distasteful compounds have been studied in only a few organisms. Here, we study spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula; Fulgoridae) that change to red colouration when they narrow their host plant preference...

A typical colony of Neotropical army ants (subfamily Ecitoninae) regularly raids a large area around their bivouac by forming a narrow directional column that can reach up to one hundred meters in length. The raid is finished and then relaunched 12–17 times, each time toward different orientation. After completing all bouts the colony relocates to...

Size‐assortative mating, defined as a positive linear association of body size between members of mating pairs, can arise from mechanical constraints on pairing efficiency, particularly when mating success is affected by males’ mate‐grasping force. In this context, female resistance is predicted to have an important role in changing the threshold f...

Predator-specific alarm calls may have a variety of context-specific functions. Parents of the oriental tit, Parus minor, use the 'jar' call in response to the presence of a snake near the nests, and the nestlings respond by escaping the nest cavity. This specific function can be observed only when nestlings are able to fledge. Do tits use the 'jar...

Introduction Prey escape reaction in insects is an antipredatory adaptation that is mediated by prey neural escape circuits with specific sensory properties. Methods Certain insectivorous birds, flush-pursuers, exploit this visual sensitivity by employing conspicuous pivoting movements of spread tail and wings to flush the prey into the air where...

Numerous studies have addressed antipredatory benefits of mixed-species flocks of foragers, but studies on individual's vigilance as a function of group size are limited. In the Cheolwon area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, vigilance of the subordinate White-naped cranes (Grus vipio) in 11 groups composed of conspecifics and the dominant Red-crow...

Animal personality traits are defined as consistent individual differences in behavior over time and across contexts. Occasionally this inflexibility results in maladaptive behavioral responses to external stimuli. However, in social groups inflexible behavioral phenotypes might be favored as this could lead to more predictable social interactions....

Some species of semiaquatic arthropods including water striders and springtails can jump from the water surface to avoid sudden dangers like predator attacks. It was reported recently that the jump of medium-sized water striders is a result of surface-tension-dominated interaction of thin cylindrical legs and water, with the leg movement speed near...

Knowledge about the distribution and habitat preferences of a species is critical for its conservation. The Suweon Treefrog (Dryophytes suweonensis) is an endangered species endemic to the Republic of Korea. We conducted surveys from 2014 to 2016 at 890 potentially suitable sites across the entire range of the species in South Korea. We then assess...

Supplemental File Raw data.

Urban environments present novel and challenging habitats to wildlife. In addition to well-known difference in abiotic factors between rural and urban environments, the biotic environment, including microbial fauna, may also differ significantly. In this study, we aimed to compare the change in microbial abundance on eggshells during incubation bet...

There is considerable interest in the functional basis of ecological strategies amongst bacteria. We used laboratory microcosms based on culturing of elutant from soil, to study the effects of varying initial nutrient concentration, and time succession, on the community metagenome. We found a distinct set of nutrient related or time related changes...

The feathers of the black-billed magpie exhibit distinct iridescence, which is much weaker than that of other bird feathers well known to display structural colors. Close examination of the cross-sectional microstructures of the magpie feather barbules revealed that the vertically layered structure of melanin tubes along the barbule surface (cortex...

Water striders are water-walking insects that can jump upwards from the water surface. Quick jumps allow striders to avoid sudden dangers such as predators' attacks, and therefore their jumping is expected to be shaped by natural selection for optimal performance. Related species with different morphological constraints could require different jump...

Since carotenoids can serve as antioxidants and/or immune stimulants, it has been assumed that deposition of carotenoids in feathers or bills can reveal the health status in birds. In order to study the function of carotenoids as signals or immune stimulants, it is necessary to characterise the types of carotenoid molecules in the study species. In...

Supplementary Figures 1-8, Supplementary Tables, Supplementary Notes and Supplementary References

Frontal and side views of the vertical jump of the water strider Aquarius paludum. The movie speed is approximately 0.006 times the actual speed.

A key characteristic of MHC genes is the persistence of allelic lineages over macroevolutionary periods, often through multiple speciation events. This phenomenon, known as trans-species polymorphism (TSP), is well documented in several major taxonomic groups, but has less frequently been observed in birds. The order Passeriformes is arguably the m...

Many species have evolved a suite of anti-predator defences, rather than a single defence. These multiple defences may operate in synchrony or separately at different stages of predation sequence to protect the prey. However, empirical documentation on how multiple defences, as a whole, combine to protect prey, as well as quantitative evaluations o...

Fluctuating sexual selection caused by environmental heterogeneity can maintain variation in sexual signals. Sexual selection can also shape correlations among behavioral traits (behavioral syndromes) when certain behavioral combinations enjoy greater fitness than other combinations (i.e., under correlational sexual selection). Here, we tested the...

Warning signals protect unpalatable prey from predation because predators who learn the association between the warning signal and prey unprofitability decrease attacks on the prey. Most of the research have focused on visual aposematic signals that are constantly presented and visible to the predators. But a variety of chemically defended insects...

Plumage coloration has been the subject for a variety of questions that comprise the center of modern evolutionary biology. Unlike carotenoids that the concentration directly influences the intensity of the color, melanin, in addition to produce brown or black colors, is often involved in producing the structural coloration such as glossiness or ir...

Recent findings report that wild animals can recognize individual humans. To explain how the animals distinguish humans, two hypotheses are proposed. The high cognitive abilities hypothesis implies that pre-existing high intelligence enabled animals to acquire such abilities. The pre-exposure to stimuli hypothesis suggests that frequent encounters...