Sex differences in responsiveness to begging in a cooperative mammal

English, Sinéad; Kunc, Hansjoerg P.; Madden, Joah R.; Clutton‐Brock, Tim

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0200

Cited by 23 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…There is also an important implication for future studies of parent-offspring communication: in order to use the honest-signalling framework to predict how parental condition should affect provisioning, it is advisable to consider also how condition changes the relative importance of current and future reproduction. Parental costs of care and responsiveness are likely to vary for parents at different stages in their lives, or of different sexes [40,41]), for parents under different environmental conditions, and for parents from species with different life histories (determining the importance of current offspring relative to future ones, e.g. [42]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents and offspring in an evolutionary game: the effect of supply on demand when costs of care vary

Grodzinski

Johnstone

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Current models of parent-offspring communication do not explicitly predict the effect of parental food supply on offspring demand (ESD). However, existing theory is frequently interpreted as predicting a negative ESD, such that offspring beg less when parental supply is high. While empirical evidence largely supports this interpretation, several studies have identified the opposite case, with well-fed offspring begging more than those in poorer condition. Here, we show that signalling theory can give rise to either a negative or a positive ESD depending on the precise form of costs and benefits. Introducing variation among parents in the cost of care, we show that the ESD may change sign depending upon the quantitative relation between two effects: (i) decreased supply leads to increased begging because of an increase in marginal fitness benefit of additional resources to offspring, (ii) decreased supply leads to reduced begging because it is associated with a decrease in parental responsiveness, rendering begging less effective. To illustrate the interplay between these two effects, we show that Godfray's seminal model of begging yields a negative ESD when care is generally cheap, because the impact of supply on the marginal benefits of additional resources then outweighs the associated changes in parental responsiveness to begging. By contrast, the same model predicts a positive ESD when care is generally costly, because the impact of care costs on parental responsiveness then outweighs the change in marginal benefits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents and offspring in an evolutionary game: the effect of supply on demand when costs of care vary

Grodzinski

Johnstone

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…The main effect of an increased rate of repeat calls appeared to be the increase in food allocation of the potential feeders. Thereby, adults respond to an increased call rate by changing their generosity rather than their foraging effort (English et al 2008). Repeat calls appeared to be less important in direct competition with littermates.…”

Section: Article In Pressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signals of need in a cooperatively breeding mammal with mobile offspring

et al. 2008

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In many bird species with biparental care for young in the nest, hungry chicks beg repeatedly and parents adjust their feeding rate to the call rate of young. Repetitive calling also occurs in fledglings and in some mammals where offspring follow provisioners. It is not yet clear whether, in mobile systems with dispersed young where adults cannot compare the vocal behaviour of all young simultaneously, the calls represent a signal of need. We investigated repetitive begging by cooperatively reared meerkat, Suricata suricatta, pups that foraged with the group. Pups produced two types of begging calls: repeat calls over long periods and high-pitched calls mainly confined to feeding events. Food-deprived pups stayed closer to feeders, and begged for longer and more intensely by calling at a higher rate. Hungry pups increased both the rate of repeat calls, which were given continually, and the number of high-pitched bouts, but adults increased their food allocation only in relation to the rate of repeat calls. Our study indicates that hunger may lead to several changes in vocal behaviour, only some of which may be used by adults to assess need.

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“…We did not investigate predictors of contribution to pup feeding in meerkats in this paper, but such differences in other species have been predicted by the adult's sex (Davies 1976;Moreno 1984;Edwards 1985 Woxvold et al 2006) and may not depend on the relatedness of the adult to the offspring (Briskie et al 1998;Wright et al 1999;Canestrari et al 2005). Differences in care may be related to differences in sensitivity to offspring need (MacGregor and Cockburn 2002; Mock et al 2005;English et al 2008), adult condition (Sasvàri 1990;Bell 2008) or informational asymmetry (Johnstone and Hinde 2006). The begging rate of meerkat pups varies depending on the identity of the adult they are begging next to, and this is consistent over multiple encounters with the same adult.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, whilst higher rates of begging tend to elicit a general increase in provisioning (e.g. Ottosson et al 1997;Burford et al 1998;Halupka 1998;Kilner et al 1999;Krebs 2001;Glassey and Forbes 2002), there is some evidence that females are more responsive to begging calls than males (Quillfeldt et al 2004;English et al 2008). Most previous studies on begging rates have concentrated on nestling altricial birds, in which the young are confined to the nest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We played back 30 min of low rate and 30 min of high rate begging (only repeat calls), presented in a random order, to four focal individuals in each of ten groups between December 2005 and May 2006 (see English et al 2008). Playback cuts were made from recordings of female pups from another group by either adding or removing periods of background noise between calls to create the low (40 calls/minute) and high (120 calls/minute) treatments, respectively (values within the natural range).…”

Section: Scorpion Feeding Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates?

Madden

Kunc

English

et al. 2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates?Madden, J R; Kunc, H J P; English, S; Manser, M B; Clutton-Brock, T H Madden, J R; Kunc, H J P; English, S; Manser, M B; Clutton-Brock, T H (2009 Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates? Abstract Adults vary in their generosity in provisioning the young and their sensitivity to the need of the young. Do the young modulate their behaviour so as to specifically target more high-provisioning adults? This is especially likely in situations with mobile, nutritionally dependent young. We studied cooperatively breeding meerkats Suricata suricatta, in which pups beg to parents and other adults in the group. We found that the young begged differently when next to different adults and that they are consistent in how they beg when next to each adult. Pups next to adults that provision at high rates beg at higher rates and spend longer with them, and these adults are generally more sensitive to increases in begging rate. Such behaviour has adaptive benefits to offspring in terms of increased likelihood of being fed. However, offspring do not appear to be actively seeking out high-provisioning adults or increasing their begging behaviour when they encounter one. Pups did not appear to actively discriminate between adults in their association or begging behaviour. We suggest instead that the relationship between an adult's relative contribution to pup feeding and the behaviour of its accompanying pup is driven by adult behaviour, with responsive adults that feed pups at a relatively higher rate preferentially associating with fast-begging hungry pups. Abstract Adults vary in their generosity in provisioning the young and their sensitivity to the need of the young. Do the young modulate their behaviour so as to specifically target more high-provisioning adults? This is especially likely in situations with mobile, nutritionally dependent young. We studied cooperatively breeding meerkats Suricata suricatta, in which pups beg to parents and other adults in the group. We found that the young begged differently when next to different adults and that they are consistent in how they beg when next to each adult. Pups next to adults that provision at high rates beg at higher rates and spend longer with them, and these adults are generally more sensitive to increases in begging rate. Such behaviour has adaptive benefits to offspring in terms of increased likelihood of being fed. However, offspring do not appear to be actively seeking out high-provisioning adults or increasing their begging behaviour when they encounter one. Pups did not appear to actively discriminate between adults in their association or begging behaviour. We suggest instead that the relationship between an adult's relative contribution to pup feeding and the behaviour of its accompanying pup is driven by adult behaviour, with responsive adults that fe...

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Sex differences in responsiveness to begging in a cooperative mammal

Cited by 23 publications

References 19 publications

Parents and offspring in an evolutionary game: the effect of supply on demand when costs of care vary

Parents and offspring in an evolutionary game: the effect of supply on demand when costs of care vary

Signals of need in a cooperatively breeding mammal with mobile offspring

Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates?

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