Grooming Time Predicts Survival: American Kestrels, Falco sparverius, on a Subtropical Island

Animals have evolved a variety of adaptations to care for their body surfaces, such as grooming behavior, which keeps the integument clean, parasite-free, and properly arranged. Despite extensive research on the grooming of mammals, birds, and arthropods, the survival value of grooming has never been directly measured in natural populations. We monitored grooming and survival in a population of marked American kestrels (Falco sparverius) on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. We found a strong association between time spent grooming and survival over a 2-year period. The quadratic relationship we show is consistent with stabilizing natural selection on grooming time. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for a correlation between grooming time and survival in a natural population. Grooming time may predict the survival of many animal taxa, but additional studies are needed to determine the shape and strength of the relationship among birds, mammals, and arthropods.

A press article titled Natural History Miscellany: “Grooming Time Predicts Survival: American Kestrels, Falco sparverius, on a Subtropical Island” was posted by Shubha Govindarajan on the American Society of Naturarists website on 7 April 2023 https://www.amnat.org/an/newpapers/Apr-2023-Bush-Clayton.html