The effect of clutch size on whole clutch cannibalism in the beaugregory damselfish

Payne, Adam G.; Smith, Carl; Campbell, Andrew C.

doi:10.1046/j.1095-8649.2003.00070.x

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…Consistently, plainfin midshipman males cannibalise partially, never fully, from their broods, allowing eggs from multiple females to accumulate in their nests throughout the season (Bose et al ., 2014). Fewer studies exist on parent–offspring cannibalism in non‐brood cyclers (but see Hoelzer, 1988; Kraak, 1996; Payne, Smith & Campbell, 2003; Klug, Chin & St Mary, 2005), and so this is an area where additional empirical research would be valuable. Although not yet explicitly studied, full‐brood cannibalism might still occur in non‐brood cyclers, for example if polygynous male caregivers cannibalise very early in the season when their broods are still so small that even a little cannibalism would remove the brood; however, in this case selection for female counterstrategies would also be expected to be high.…”

Section: Adaptive Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Start Endmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parent–offspring cannibalism throughout the animal kingdom: a review of adaptive hypotheses

Bose

2022

Biological Reviews

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Parents that kill and consume their offspring often appear to be acting against their own reproductive interests. Yet parentoffspring cannibalism is common and taxonomically widespread across the animal kingdom. In this review, I provide an overview of our current understanding of parent-offspring cannibalism, which has seen a proliferation in adaptive hypotheses over the past 20 years for why parents consume their own young. I review over four decades of research into this perplexing behaviour, drawing from work conducted on fishes, reptiles, insects, birds, and mammals among other taxa. Many factors have been hypothesised to explain parent-offspring cannibalism in nature, including poor parental energy reserves, small or large brood sizes, low or uncertain parentage, and high brood densities, and additional factors are still being uncovered. Parent-offspring cannibalism does not appear to have a single predominant explanation; rather, the factor, or set of factors, that govern its expression is largely taxon specific. Parents may either consume all offspring under their care (fullbrood cannibalism) or consume a fraction of their offspring (partial brood cannibalism). These forms of cannibalism are thought to provide adaptive benefits to cannibals under a range of circumstances, primarily by allowing parents to allocate parental efforts more optimallyenergy from eating (some of) one's current offspring can be redirected to other offspring, or to parental growth, survival, and ultimately to other future reproductive endeavours. Thus, parent-offspring cannibalism is a phenotypically plastic trait that responds to changing environmental, social, and physiological conditions. The expression of parent-offspring cannibalism in any given system is intimately linked to the reproductive value of current young relative to parents' expectations for future reproduction, and also to whether parental care is predominantly depreciable or non-depreciable. Furthermore, parent-offspring cannibalism has the potential to generate conflict between the sexes, and I briefly discuss some consequences of this conflict on patterns of mate choice. Finally, there still remain many aspects of this behaviour where our understanding is poor, and I highlight these topics to help guide future research.

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Section: Adaptive Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Start Endmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent–offspring cannibalism throughout the animal kingdom: a review of adaptive hypotheses

Bose

2022

Biological Reviews

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“…In fish, it is well established through field correlates and brood size manipulations that individuals are often more likely to completely consume small broods than large broods (Kramer 1973;Schwanck 1986;Mrowka 1987;Petersen and Marchetti 1989;Lavery and Keenleyside 1990;Petersen 1990;Petersen and Hess 1991;Forsgren et al 1996;Lindström and Sargent 1997;Manica 2002a;Pampoulie et al 2004;Lissåker and Kvarnemo 2006;Myint et al 2011a; but see Payne et al 2003). This is because the care provided by most fish, usually egg guarding and fanning, is considered to be essentially "nondepreciable" (sensu Altmann et al 1977;Blumer 1979; Clutton-Brock 1991; Smith and Wootton 1995; but see Klug et al 2006).…”

Section: Mechanisms Favoring a Negative Association Between Mate Avaimentioning

confidence: 99%

How Mate Availability Influences Filial Cannibalism

Deal

Wong

2016

The Quarterly Review of Biology

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Parents sometimes eat their young to reduce the consequences of brood overcrowding, for nutritional gain, and/or to redirect investment toward future reproduction. It has been predicted that filial cannibalism should be more prevalent when mate availability is high as parents can more easily replace consumed young. Reviewing the available evidence--which comes almost exclusively from studies of paternal caring fish--we find support in some species, but not others. To explain this, we hypothesize that sexual selection against filial cannibalism and/or the tendency to acquire larger broods under conditions of high mate availability discourages filial cannibalism. Additionally, filial cannibalism might occur when mate availability is low to facilitate survival until access to mates improves. Since attractiveness can also influence remating opportunities, we review its effect on filial cannibalism, finding that attractive parents engage in less filial cannibalism. More research is needed to determine if this relationship is a result of individuals showing adaptive plasticity in filial cannibalism based on self-perceived attractiveness, or if the attractiveness of individuals is reduced by their propensity to commit filial cannibalism. More generally, to advance our understanding of how mate availability influences filial cannibalism, future studies should also focus on a wider range of taxa.

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“…Filial cannibalism can be partial, where the cannibalistic parent eats only a proportion of the eggs within its nest. This strategy has been seen as parental investment into the remaining eggs and a way to optimize its reproductive success (Hoelzer, 1992; Payne et al ., 2003). Cannibalism can also be total; in this case the cannibalistic parent (most often the male) may eat the entire brood because of its low quality both in terms of clutch size or development of the eggs (Manica, 2002 b ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest guarding in a damselfish: evidence of a role for parasites

Sasal

2006

Journal of Fish Biology

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A potential effect of parasitism on male egg loss while guarding was tested using damselfish Stegastes planifrons. Despite an apparent low energetic cost of the parasite on the male condition, there was a significant positive relationship between egg loss and parasite load. These data provide the first evidence that parasites could play a role in male guarding behaviour. The effect of the parasite could have resulted in low male condition compensated by an increase in filial cannibalism or in a lesser ability to protect the nest from predators.

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The effect of clutch size on whole clutch cannibalism in the beaugregory damselfish

Abstract: Parental male beaugregory damselfish Stegastes leucostictus commonly cannibalize entire egg clutches under natural conditions. Clutch size was experimentally reduced, but a relationship between the extent of clutch reduction and the frequency of total cannibalism was not detected.

Cited by 8 publications

References 23 publications

Parent–offspring cannibalism throughout the animal kingdom: a review of adaptive hypotheses

Parent–offspring cannibalism throughout the animal kingdom: a review of adaptive hypotheses

How Mate Availability Influences Filial Cannibalism

Nest guarding in a damselfish: evidence of a role for parasites

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