What Can We Quantify About Carer Behavior?

Savage, James L.; Hinde, Camilla A.

doi:10.3389/fevo.2019.00418

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…While we were unable to find a role for chick begging cues or parental reunion at the nest in the coordination of provisioning behaviour in the Manx shearwater, it is not clear whether this is because parents use alternative mechanisms to regulate their care, such as olfactory cues or reunion outside of the nest, or because they do not actively coordinate their provisioning behaviour at all. Though the coordination of parental behaviour is clearly widespread (Johnstone et al 2014, Bebbington and Hatchwell 2016, Mariette 2019, Savage and Hinde 2019), demonstrating conclusively that this is an active process is not straightforward. Similarities in individual behaviour may lead to synchrony in parental care if, for example, parents respond to environmental or physiological cues in the same way (Schlicht et al 2016, Savage et al 2017, Lejeune et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the mechanisms of coordinated chick provisioning in the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus

Gillies

Tyson

Wynn

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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Many species that provide care for their offspring in tandem with a partner coordinate their activities to maximise the efficiency of their investment. However, it is not well known exactly how this coordination is achieved. Manx shearwaters Puffinus puffinus are Procellariiform seabirds that exhibit a dual foraging strategy during chick provisioning in which long foraging trips to maintain condition are alternated with short, frequent trips to feed the offspring. This strategy is employed in a coordinated manner between the parents, with one making short trips while the other takes a single long trip. Previous work revealed that a complementary switch in foraging trip type is initiated by the parents following a synchronous visit to the nest. We used a combination of observational data and experimental manipulation to examine the mechanisms that may underlie this behaviour. Specifically, we investigated the evidence that physical reunion is necessary to induce a switch in trip type, whether parents change their behaviour to maximise the probability of partner encounter, and whether indirect cues gained from the chick could inform a switch in behaviour. In our experimental approach, we manipulated the information adults had available to them by supplementarily feeding chicks to alter their begging behaviour. We found no support for the role of physical reunion or indirect cues in the coordination of care in this species. We discuss the possibility that the patterns of alternated provisioning observed during chick rearing in Manx shearwaters may emerge through entrainment during the well‐coordinated incubation period preceding chick provisioning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the mechanisms of coordinated chick provisioning in the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus

Gillies

Tyson

Wynn

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…On the other hand, individuals could also increase their investment when paired with poorly ornamented mates (or in general poor quality mates) in order to improve on an unfortunate situation (reproductive compensation; Gowaty et al 2007;Gowaty 2008). Reproductive compensation might be more advantageous if the reduction of the mate's ornamentation occurs unexpectedly after fertilization, when the offspring genetic quality is not at stake (Morales et al 2012), or at late stages of offspring development, when most of the strenuous parental effort has already been performed and the extra-investment could be of short duration (Savage and Hinde 2019). The optimal parental care strategy might thus be context-dependent, and it may also be highly dependent on the behaviour of the signaller (Ratikainen and Kokko 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental evidence that adult UV/yellow colouration functions as a signal in blue tit families — but only for parents

García‐Campa

Müller

Morales

2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In bi-parental species, reproduction is not only a crucial life-history stage where individuals must take fitness-related decisions, but these decisions also need to be adjusted to the behavioural strategies of other individuals. Hence, communication is required, which could be facilitated by informative signals. Yet, these signalling traits might have (co-)evolved in multiple contexts, as various family members usually meet and interact during reproduction. In this study, we experimentally explored for the first time whether a colourful plumage trait in adults acts as a signal that regulates multiple intra-family interactions in a bird species, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). We expected that an experimental reduction of adults’ UV/yellow reflectance (i.e. a reduction of apparent individual quality) should affect the behavioural strategies of all family members. We found evidence for this at least in adults, since the partners of UV-blocked individuals (either males or females) increased their parental investment — perhaps to compensate for the apparent lower condition of their mates. As the UV-blocked adult did not change its provisioning behaviour, the partner presumably responded to the manipulated signal and not to a behavioural change. However, the offspring did not co-adjust their begging intensity to the experimental treatment. It is thus possible that they responded to overall parental care rather than the signal. These results suggest that UV/yellow colouration of adult blue tits may act as quality signal revealing the rearing capacity to mates. Significance statement How parents respond to signals of genetic or phenotypic quality of their mates has received significant attention. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the receiver’s response and have not always controlled for the signaller’s behaviour and its investment in reproduction. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that ultraviolet (UV)/yellow colouration acts as a signal of parental quality in the blue tit. Parents responded by increasing their effort when paired with UV-blocked (low-quality) mates, while controlling for the mate’s behaviour. We argue that the reduced expression of the signal triggered a compensatory response in the mate. Interestingly, both males and females responded similarly to changes in mate’s UV/yellow reflectance, suggesting similar rules over investment in response to this trait. However, nestlings, a potential (and often neglected) set of observers of parental signals, did not change their behaviour when raised by an UV-blocked (= low-quality) parent.

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“…Previous work on diverse animal families has found evidence that such favourable combinations of phenotypes do indeed exist between social partners within animal families (e.g., Zeh and Zeh 2000; Linksvayer, Fondrk, and Page Jr 2009; Hinde, Johnstone, and Kilner 2010). Evidence from bird species, for example, has identified the precise ways in which adults coordinate their provisioning activity at the nest (e.g., Savage and Hinde 2019; Griffith 2019). Some of this coordination is the result of flexible decision-making, through adherence to adaptive ‘negotiation rules’ which enable mothers and fathers to fine-tune their provisioning behaviours to one another (e.g., McNamara et al 1999; Savage and Hinde 2019; Smiseth 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection on the joint actions of pairs leads to divergent adaptation and coadaptation of care-giving parents during pre-hatching care

Jarrett

Mashoodh

Issar

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Parental care often involves coordination between the mothers and fathers. Their coordination is partly due to flexible "negotiation rules" that allow mothers and fathers to respond adaptively to each other in real time, but could also be due to divergent environmental conditions that cause different negotiation rules to evolve in different populations through coadaptation. We evolved experimental populations of burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides in different environments and tested for evidence that the sexes had coadapted to these divergent environments. In two populations, parents supplied pre- and post-hatching care (Full Care environment), while in two other populations, parents supplied only pre-hatching care (No Care environment). We have previously shown that parents in the No Care populations rapidly evolved superior pre-hatching care. Here we show that this is due to the coadaptation of the traits expressed by males and females while they convert carrion into an edible nest for larvae. After 15 generations of experimental evolution, we created heterotypic pairs (No Care females with Full Care males, and No Care males with Full Care females) and found they were less effective at making a carrion nest than homotypic No Care pairs-with negative consequences for brood performance. We suggest that the coadaptation of the sexes is the result of selection acting on pairs in different ways in the No Care versus Full Care environments. We discuss how social co-adaptations within cooperating pairs or teams of individuals could act as post-mating barriers to gene flow.

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What Can We Quantify About Carer Behavior?

Cited by 15 publications

References 85 publications

Exploring the mechanisms of coordinated chick provisioning in the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus

Exploring the mechanisms of coordinated chick provisioning in the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus

Experimental evidence that adult UV/yellow colouration functions as a signal in blue tit families — but only for parents

Selection on the joint actions of pairs leads to divergent adaptation and coadaptation of care-giving parents during pre-hatching care

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