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Begging signals and biparental care: nestling choice between parental feeding locations
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  9480688     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The evolutionary conflict over the amount of resources transferred between a parent and its offspring may be resolved by honest signalling of 'need' by offspring and parental investment in relation to signalling level. In birds, biparental care is the norm and evidence that male and female parents differ in their investment pattern in individual offspring is growing. In an experiment on great tits, Parus major, we investigated how and why parents differ in food allocation when responding to similar chick signals, which supposedly uniquely reflect the chick's nutritional condition. Nestling hunger level was manipulated by food deprivation and hand-feeding. Subsequent filming revealed that parents fed from significantly different locations on the nest and thereby forced chicks to choose between them when competing for favourable positions. Deprived nestlings approached, and fed ones retreated (or were displaced by siblings) from, positions near the female. No such behaviour was observed towards the male. Females allocated more feeds than males to the food-deprived nestlings. The results are discussed in terms of nestling competition for access to 'begging patches'. By varying their 'begging patch' value, parents may exploit competitive inter-sibling dynamics to influence the outcome of competition among chick phenotypes (e.g. 'need', size, sex). Parent birds may thereby exert considerable control over the information content of chick begging behaviour. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Authors:
KÖLLIKER; Richner; Werner; Heeb
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Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Animal behaviour     Volume:  55     ISSN:  0003-3472     ISO Abbreviation:  Anim Behav     Publication Date:  1998 Jan 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  1998-03-02     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0376746     Medline TA:  Anim Behav     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  215-22     Citation Subset:  -    
Affiliation:
Zoology Department, University of Bern
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