Improving the Accuracy and Precision of Egg Volume Measurement and Comparing Hoyt’s Equation and Troscianko’s Egg Volume Estimation for Gallinaceous Bird Species

Document Type : Original Paper

Authors

1 University of Sopron, Faculty of Forestry, Institute of Wildlife Management and Vertebrate Zoology, H-9400 Sopron, Bajcsy-Zs. str. 4, Hungary

2 Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Technical and Human Sciences, Tîrgu-Mureș, 540485 Tîrgu-Mureş, Corunca, Calea Sighișoarei nr. 2., Jud. Mureș, Romania

3 Ingvesting Team Ltd, Spectrometry Laboratory, H-9400 Sopron, Hungary

Abstract

The recognition that egg volume variation has widespread implications in avian biology led us to test the accuracy and precision of the most commonly used egg volume determination methods. As a benchmark for the tests, we used real egg volume values determined by water submersion. We identified some evident limitations of this approach and attempted to improve the method by using distilled water and accurate temperature correction. Starting from the assumption that our methodological proposals can effectively improve the accuracy of egg volume measurements, we compared the outcomes with two widely used volume estimation methods based on Hoyt’s equation and Troscianko software estimate for five gallinaceous bird species (forty eggs from each species). We found that Hoyt’s and Troscianko’s egg volume estimation methods strongly correlate with our volume measurements. Despite the highly significant and relatively high values of coefficients of determination, further analyses reveal some important differences among the methods.

Keywords


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