Unpredictable environments lead to the evolution of parental neglect in birds

A nest of begging chicks invites an intuitive explanation: needy chicks want to be fed and parents want to feed them. Surprisingly, however, in a quarter of species studied, parents ignore begging chicks. Furthermore, parents in some species even neglect smaller chicks that beg more, and preferentia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2016-03, Vol.7 (1), p.10985-10985, Article 10985
Main Authors: Caro, Shana M., Griffin, Ashleigh S., Hinde, Camilla A., West, Stuart A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/857
631/601/18
Animal Communication
Animals
Behavioral Ecology
Behavioural Ecology
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Birds - physiology
Cues
Environment
Gedragsecologie
Humanities and Social Sciences
Leerstoelgroep Gedragsecologie
multidisciplinary
PE&RC
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species Specificity
WIAS
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Summary:A nest of begging chicks invites an intuitive explanation: needy chicks want to be fed and parents want to feed them. Surprisingly, however, in a quarter of species studied, parents ignore begging chicks. Furthermore, parents in some species even neglect smaller chicks that beg more, and preferentially feed the biggest chicks that beg less. This extreme variation across species, which contradicts predictions from theory, represents a major outstanding problem for the study of animal signalling. We analyse parent–offspring communication across 143 bird species, and show that this variation correlates with ecological differences. In predictable and good environments, chicks in worse condition beg more, and parents preferentially feed those chicks. In unpredictable and poor environments, parents pay less attention to begging, and instead rely on size cues or structural signals of quality. Overall, these results show how ecological variation can lead to different signalling systems being evolutionarily stable in different species. The response of parents to offspring begging behaviour is hugely variable in birds, but what mediates this response is not known. In a meta-analysis across 143 species, Caro et al . show that variation in offspring begging and parental care is a function of environmental quality and predictability.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms10985