Table 1. Representing a description, for each year, of the conditions each bird was reared under, the numbers per house, the release sex ratio along with what data was collected.
The default environment was analogous to current industrial rearing conditions and acted as our control; a barren, spatially simple environment that offered a monotonous chick crumb diet that as ad lib and in excess. Within the parenthesis next to the measures denotes the sample size and which hypotheses it was used to test.
| Year | Rearing (day 1—release day) | Release day (day 43–62) | Post release (release day until 1 March) | Shooting season (1 October–1 February) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 10 replicates of three dietary treatments | Mass (871) | Foraging behaviour (167: ABH) | Mass (233) |
| (1) 1% mealworms; (2) 5% mixed seed; (3) Control | Tarsus (871) | Mortality (13: PRH) | Tarsus (233) | |
| Rearing numbers = 30 per house | Gut morphology (129: FSH) | |||
| Release sex ratio(f:m) = 50:50 | Crop mass (159: FSH) | |||
| Large release number (game keeper) | ||||
| 2013 | 3 × 2 design. 10 replicates of 3 dietary treatments | Mass (901) | Foraging behaviour (214: ABH) | Mass (202) |
| (1) 1% mealworms; (2) 5% mixed seed; (3) Control | Tarsus (901) | Vigilance behaviour (214: ABH) | Tarsus (202) | |
| 15 replicates of 2 structural treatments | Resting behaviour (214: ABH) | Crop samples (147: FSH) | ||
| (1) access to perches; and (2) control (no perches) | Walking behaviour (214: ABH) | |||
| Rearing numbers = 30 per house | Mortality (18: PRH) | |||
| Release sex ratio(f:m) = 46:54 | ||||
| Large release number (game keeper) | ||||
| 2014 | No environmental treatments. | None | Feeder use relative to possible | None |
| All had control environment with the addition of | predation events (50: PRH) | |||
| Supplementary mealworms and mixed seed and had | ||||
| access to perches | ||||
| Rearing numbers = 50 per house | ||||
| Release sex ratio(f:m) = 46:54 | ||||
| Small release number (no game keeper) | ||||
| 2015 | No environmental treatments. | Mass (194) | Mortality (42: PRH) | None |
| All had control environment with the addition of | Tarsus (194) | |||
| Supplementary mealworms and mixed seed and had | ||||
| access to perches | ||||
| Rearing numbers = 50 per house | ||||
| Release sex ratio(f:m) = 46:54 Small release number (no game keeper) | ||||
Notes.
- FSH
- Forage Selection Hypothesis
- PRH
- Predation Risk Hypothesis
- ABH
- Activity Budget Hypothesis