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At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Effects of deafening on the development of nestling and juvenile vocalizations in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

The effects of complete and partial cochlear extirpation at ages 9-11 days posthatch were assessed in 5 nestling budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to determine if auditory feedback is necessary for the production of nestling vocalizations. Although early deafening had no effect on the production of food-begging calls produced during the first 2 weeks posthatch, deafening did disrupt the expected transition from these early calls to the longer and more complex frequency-modulated, patterned food-begging calls normally appearing 3-4 weeks posthatch. All birds sustaining either complete or partial cochlear extirpation failed to develop stereotyped contact calls around the time of fledging at 5 weeks. These results are consistent with previous research showing that deafened nestlings do not develop normal contact calls (R. J. Dooling, B. F. Gephart, P. H. Price, C. McHale, & S. E. Brauth, 1987) and also indicate that a form of sensorimotor learning is involved in the production of mature, patterned food-begging calls in budgerigars.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Life history, ecology and longevity in bats.

The evolutionary theory of aging predicts that life span should decrease in response to the amount of mortality caused by extrinsic sources. Using this prediction, we selected six life history and ecological factors to use in a comparative analysis of longevity among 64 bat species. On average, the maximum recorded life span of a bat is 3.5 times greater than a non-flying placental mammal of similar size. Records of individuals surviving more than 30 years in the wild now exist for five species. Univariate and multivariate analyses of species data, as well as of phylogenetically independent contrasts obtained using a supertree of Chiroptera, reveal that bat life span significantly increases with hibernation, body mass and occasional cave use, but decreases with reproductive rate and is not influenced by diet, colony size or the source of the record. These results are largely consistent with extrinsic mortality risk acting as a determinant of bat longevity. Nevertheless, the strong association between life span and both reproductive rate and hibernation also suggests that bat longevity is strongly influenced by seasonal allocation of non-renewable resources to reproduction. We speculate that hibernation may provide a natural example of caloric restriction, which is known to increase longevity in other mammals.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Genetic antecedents of altruistic behavior in Passeriformes.

On the basis of a theory for the establishment and increase of altruistic genes in animal populations a relationship was hypothesized to exist in an avian order between clutch averages (which were considered an index of "genetic investment") and prosocial behavior. The order Passeriformes was used, as clutch sizes were found to vary from one to 11 among the species, and the number of caretakers was also found to vary, falling into four categories: female only, female and male, both plus intraspecies helpers, and interspecies altruists. The positive correlations found in this research tend to support this theory.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Comparative analyses of the influence of developmental mode on phenotypic diversification rates in shorebirds.

Phenotypic diversity is not evenly distributed across lineages. Here, we describe and apply a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic comparative method to test for different rates of phenotypic evolution between groups of the avian order Charadriiformes (shorebirds, gulls and alcids) to test the influence of a binary trait (offspring demand; semi-precocial or precocial) on rates of evolution of parental care, mating systems and secondary sexual traits. In semi-precocial species, chicks are reliant on the parents for feeding, but in precocial species the chicks feed themselves. Thus, where the parents are emancipated from feeding the young, we predict that there is an increased potential for brood desertion, and consequently for the divergence of mating systems. In addition, secondary sexual traits are predicted to evolve faster in groups with less demanding young. We found that precocial development not only allows rapid divergence of parental care and mating behaviours, but also promotes the rapid diversification of secondary sexual characters, most notably sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in body mass. Thus, less demanding offspring appear to facilitate rapid evolution of breeding systems and some sexually selected traits.

Animals↗
PubMed2007

Negotiations within the family over the supply of parental care.

Adults provisioning dependent young are in conflict with their partners, who would prefer a greater level of effort, and with their offspring, who would prefer a greater supply of food. To what extent, then should adults negotiate their provisioning behaviour with other family members? We used experimental manipulations of brood size, and targeted playback of begging calls to determine the extent to which adult great tits Parus major adjust their provisioning rates in response to the behaviour of their partner and their brood. We found that males and females behaved similarly, both responding more to each other's behaviour than to chick calling. We also found that the degree to which adults negotiated their provisioning rates with each other varied between years. A review of the literature suggests that the extent of negotiation over provisioning is likely to vary not only between species of diverse taxa, but also between and within (this study) populations of the same species. We suggest that provisioning behaviour lies on a 'negotiation continuum', which describes the extent to which parents respond to the actions of other family members. We argue that an individual's location on the 'negotiation continuum' is determined partly by the extent to which it can physically respond to the behaviour shown by other members of the family and partly by the quality of information on offer.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

The evolution of avian parental care.

A stage model traces key behavioural tactics and life-history traits that are involved in the transition from promiscuity with no parental care, the mating system that typifies reptiles, to that typical of most birds, social monogamy with biparental care. In stage I, females assumed increasing parental investment in precocial young, female choice of mates increased, female-biased mating dispersal evolved and population sex ratios became male biased. In stage II, consortships between mating partners allowed males to attract rare social mates, provided a mechanism for paternity assessment and increased female ability to assess mate quality. In stage III, relative female scarcity enabled females to demand parental investment contributions from males having some paternity certainty. This innovation was facilitated by the nature of avian parental care; i.e. most care-giving activities can be adopted in small units. Moreover, the initial cost of care giving to males was small compared with its benefit to females. Males, however, tended to decline to assume non-partitionable, risky, or relatively costly parental activities. In stage IV, altriciality coevolved with increasing biparental care, resulting in social monogamy. Approaches for testing behavioural hypotheses are suggested.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Parental care and adaptive brood sex ratio manipulation in birds.

Under many circumstances, it might be adaptive for parents to bias the investment in offspring in relation to sex. Recently developed molecular techniques that allow sex determination of newly hatched offspring have caused a surge in studies of avian sex allocation. Whether females bias the primary brood sex ratio in relation to factors such as environmental and parental quality is debated. Progress is hampered because the mechanisms for primary sex ratio manipulation are unknown. Moreover, publication bias against non-significant results may distort our view of adaptive sex ratio manipulation. Despite this, there is recent experimental evidence for adaptive brood sex ratio manipulation in birds. Parental care is a particularly likely candidate to affect the brood sex ratio because it can have strong direct effects on the fitness of both parents and their offspring. We investigate and make predictions of factors that can be important for adaptive brood sex ratio manipulation under different patterns of parental care. We encourage correlational studies based on sufficiently large datasets to ensure high statistical power, studies identifying and experimentally altering factors with sex-differential fitness effects that may cause brood sex ratio skew, and studies that experimentally manipulate brood sex ratio and investigate fitness effects.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2002

A self-consistent approach to paternity and parental effort.

We review the relationship between optimal parental effort and paternity, and emphasize the need for a self-consistent approach. A fundamental consistency condition is what we refer to as the conservation of paternity. Every offspring has exactly one father. If a male has a paternity of less than unity, then another male or other males must have gained the lost paternity. Our approach also emphasizes that paternity emerges as the result of interactions between males and females. From this viewpoint, if paternity changes it is because some aspect of the interaction changes, and the correlation between effort and paternity depends on the aspect that has changed. This has implications for comparative analyses of paternity. The conclusions that are drawn about the correlation between effort and paternity within a population depend on, for example, the types of male in the population and how their abilities are correlated. It is easy to construct models that predict negative correlations between effort and paternity.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2002

Parentally biased favouritism: why should parents specialize in caring for different offspring?

'Parentally biased favouritism' occurs when the two parents differentially care for individual offspring or kinds of offspring. Examples in birds include brood division and differential investment by the two parents in relation to the size or sex of the offspring. This paper uses mathematical models to investigate which ideas can, in theory, explain parentally biased favouritism. One previous explanation is that the parents differ in their cost of reproduction and that the parent who consequently invests least concentrates its care on the more valuable offspring. However, a mathematical model predicts the total care given by each parent and received by each offspring, not how much each parent cares for each offspring, and hence does not explain parentally biased favouritism. Parentally biased favouritism towards particular types of offspring can be explained by a difference between the parents in the benefits of caring for a given type of offspring or in the effort incurred in providing care to a given type of offspring, but then it is extreme, with at least one of the parents providing care to only one type of offspring. Parentally biased favouritism towards particular individual offspring (brood division) can be explained by parent-offspring conflict or sexual conflict.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Eider females form non-kin brood-rearing coalitions.

Kin selection is a powerful tool for understanding cooperation among individuals, yet its role as the sole explanation of cooperative societies has recently been challenged on empirical grounds. These studies suggest that direct benefits of cooperation are often overlooked, and that partner choice may be a widespread mechanism of cooperation. Female eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) may rear broods alone, or they may pool their broods and share brood-rearing. Females are philopatric, and it has been suggested that colonies may largely consist of related females, which could promote interactions among relatives. Alternatively, shared brood care could be random with respect to relatedness, either because brood amalgamations are accidental and nonadaptive, or through group augmentation, assuming that the fitness of all group members increases with group size. We tested these alternatives by measuring the relatedness of co-tending eider females in enduring coalitions with microsatellite markers. Females formed enduring brood-rearing coalitions with each other at random with respect to relatedness. However, based on previous data, partner choice is nonrandom and dependent on female body condition. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying eider communal brood-rearing decisions, which may be driven by the specific ecological conditions under which sociality has evolved in this species.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Brood parasitic cowbird nestlings use host young to procure resources.

Young brood parasites that tolerate the company of host offspring challenge the existing evolutionary view of family life. In theory, all parasitic nestlings should be ruthlessly self-interested and should kill host offspring soon after hatching. Yet many species allow host young to live, even though they are rivals for host resources. Here we show that the tolerance of host nestlings by the parasitic brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater is adaptive. Host young procure the cowbird a higher provisioning rate, so it grows more rapidly. The cowbird's unexpected altruism toward host offspring simply promotes its selfish interests in exploiting host parents.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo nestlings simulate multiple gapes for begging.

Nestlings of some brood parasitic birds evict hosts' eggs and young soon after hatching, thereby avoiding discrimination by hosts while monopolizing parental care. Eviction carries a cost, however, because lone parasitic nestlings attract a reduced provisioning rate. Here we describe a form of visual signaling used by the evicting Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo (Cuculus fugax) to obtain sufficient food. The chick displays a gape-colored patch on the wing to the host parents as they deliver food, simulating the gaping display of more than one nestling.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1976

Observations on a small group of mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei).

On the basis of a 5-month field study, data are presented on home range, patterns of daily movement and social behaviour in a small free-living gorilla group. Changes in group composition that occurred during the study are analysed with special reference to their effect on inter-individual distance. The relationships with other groups and lone individuals whose home ranges overlapped with that of the group studied are examined on the basis of intergroup contacts.

Agonistic Behavior↗