Antioxidants in eggs of great tits Parus major from Chernobyl and hatching success

Abstract Antioxidants are powerful protectors against the damaging eVects of free radicals that constitute the inevitable by-products of aerobic metabolism. Growing embryos are particularly susceptible to the damaging eVects of free radicals produced during rapid growth, and mothers of many species provide protection against such damage by allocating antioxidants to their eggs. Birds living in radio-actively contaminated areas use dietary antioxidants to cope with the damaging eVects of radiation, but females also allocate dietary antioxidants to eggs, potentially enforcing a physiological trade-oV between self-mainte-nance and reproductive investment. Here we tested whether female great tits Parus major breeding in radioactively con-taminated study areas near Chernobyl allocated less dietary antioxidants to eggs, and whether such reduced allocatio