An experimental test on time constraint and sexual conflict over parental care

Griggio, Matteo

doi:10.1002/ece3.1620

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…This pattern also has been proven in insects and fish, where males extend the duration of parental care when they are experiencing intensive competition (Grüter and Taborsky 2005;Hopwood et al 2015). Second, in a migratory species with a short breeding season, such as rock sparrow, individual parental care decisions may be restricted by the amount of time remaining in the season (Griggio 2015). In this study, we found the number of males in the mating pool declined after day 60.…”

Section: Seasonal Variation In Male Parental Care and Mating Opportunitysupporting

confidence: 74%

Males and females of a polygamous songbird respond differently to mating opportunities

Zheng

Komdeur

Székely

et al. 2021

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Parents are expected to make fine-tuned decisions by weighing the benefits of providing care to increase offspring survival against that of deserting to pursue future mating opportunities. A higher incentive for the rarer sex in the population indicates an impact of mating opportunities on parental care decisions. However, in a dynamic breeding system, deserting the offspring and searching for a new mate would influence mating opportunities for both sexes. Sex-specific costs and benefits are expected to influence males' and females' parenting strategies in different ways. Here, we investigated Chinese penduline tits, Remiz consobrinus, which exhibit flexible parental care strategies: uniparental care by the male or female, biparental care, and biparental desertion occur in the same population. We show that male penduline tits change their parental behavior over the breeding season; they desert clutches produced early in the season but care for the late season clutches. The change in male parenting behavior is consistent with the seasonal decline in mating opportunities. In contrast, parenting by females did not change over the breeding season, nor was it associated with seasonal variation in mate availability. Taken together, mating opportunities have different associations with parental behavior of male and female Chinese penduline tits. We recommend an inclusion of mating opportunities for both sexes simultaneously in order to understand one of the fundamental decisions in parental care evolutioncare or desert. Significance statementDivorce is a common feature of both human and nonhuman animal societies. Theoretical studies suggest that one of the drivers of divorce is enhanced mating opportunity, i.e., parents with higher mating opportunities are more likely to abandon their family than those with low mating opportunities. Here, we investigate the dynamics of parental behavior and mating opportunities in a wild population of a small songbird, the Chinese penduline tit Remiz consobrinus. This species exhibits one of the most diverse avian breeding systems wherein both uniparental (male or female) and biparental rearing can be seen in a single population. We show that male penduline tits abandon their offspring in response to enhanced mating opportunities while the female parental Communicated by M. Leonard

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Section: Seasonal Variation In Male Parental Care and Mating Opportunitysupporting

confidence: 74%

Males and females of a polygamous songbird respond differently to mating opportunities

Zheng

Komdeur

Székely

et al. 2021

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…ref. 9 – 15 ). For example in some cichlid fish, males are more likely to desert their brood when opportunities to breed are high 9 , 10 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible parental care: Uniparental incubation in biparentally incubating shorebirds

Bulla

Prüter

Vitnerová

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The relative investment of females and males into parental care might depend on the population’s adult sex-ratio. For example, all else being equal, males should be the more caring sex if the sex-ratio is male biased. Whether such outcomes are evolutionary fixed (i.e. related to the species’ typical sex-ratio) or whether they arise through flexible responses of individuals to the current population sex-ratio remains unclear. Nevertheless, a flexible response might be limited by the evolutionary history of the species, because one sex may have lost the ability to care or because a single parent cannot successfully raise the brood. Here, we demonstrate that after the disappearance of one parent, individuals from 8 out of 15 biparentally incubating shorebird species were able to incubate uniparentally for 1–19 days (median = 3, N = 69). Moreover, their daily incubation rhythm often resembled that of obligatory uniparental shorebird species. Although it has been suggested that in some biparental shorebirds females desert their brood after hatching, we found both sexes incubating uniparentally. Strikingly, in 27% of uniparentally incubated clutches - from 5 species - we documented successful hatching. Our data thus reveal the potential for a flexible switch from biparental to uniparental care.

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“…For example, in the Kentish plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, much depends on the current operational sex ratio in the adult population, and since it is often male-biased, females have a higher chance for successful remating, and so they are the deserting sex (Blashine and Blomqvist 1999;Pilastro et al 2001;Webb et al 2002). Opportunity for re-mating, however, reduces with progress of the breeding season (Szekely and Cuthill 2000;Griggio 2015) and for single-brooded species is non-existent. Examining such species may actually help to understand the most basic conditions for brood desertion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duration of female parental care and their survival in the little auk Alle alle - are these two traits linked?

Wojczulanis‐Jakubas

Jiménez-Muñoz

Jakubas

et al. 2020

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Desertion of offspring before its independence by one of the parents is observed in a number of avian species with bi-parental care but reasons for this strategy are not fully understood. This behaviour is particularly intriguing in species where bi-parental care is crucial to raise the brood successfully. Here, we focus on the little auk, Alle alle, a small seabird with intensive bi-parental care, where the female deserts the brood at the end of the chick rearing period. The little auk example is interesting as most hypotheses to explain desertion of the brood by females (e.g. "re-mating hypothesis", "body condition hypothesis") have been rejected for this species. Here, we analysed a possible relationship between the duration of female parental care over the chick and her chances to survive to the next breeding season. We performed the study in two breeding colonies on Spitsbergen with different foraging conditionsmore favourable in Hornsund and less favourable in Magdalenefjorden. We predicted that in Hornsund females would stay for shorter periods of time with the brood and would have higher survival rates in comparison with birds from Magdalenefjorden. We found that indeed in less favourable conditions of Magdalenefjorden, females stay longer with the brood than in the more favourable conditions of Hornsund. Moreover, female survival was negatively affected by the length of stay in the brood. Nevertheless, duration of female parental care over the chick was not related to their parental efforts, earlier in the chick rearing period, and survival of males and females was similar. Thus, although females brood desertion and winter survival are linked, the relationship is not straightforward. Significance statementWhen bi-parental care is crucial to raise the brood successfully, one parent desertion raises the question of why this happens. We examined this issue in the little auk, a small seabird with females deserting the brood at the end of the chick rearing period. We hypothesised that females deserting the brood save residual energy and, in this way, increases their chance to survive to the next breeding season. We found that duration of female parental care depends on environmental conditions, with longer staying with the brood in less favourable conditions. As expected, female survival decreased with duration of their staying with the brood but it was not related to their parental efforts (i.e. number of chick feedings, duration of foraging flights). In addition, survival of males and females was similar. Thus, although little auk females brood desertion and winter survival are linked, the relationship is not straightforward.

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An experimental test on time constraint and sexual conflict over parental care

Cited by 10 publications

References 33 publications

Males and females of a polygamous songbird respond differently to mating opportunities

Males and females of a polygamous songbird respond differently to mating opportunities

Flexible parental care: Uniparental incubation in biparentally incubating shorebirds

Duration of female parental care and their survival in the little auk Alle alle - are these two traits linked?

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