Chapter Twelve: Parental Care

Question 1

any investment that increases the chance of offspring surviving at the expense of other offspring

Answer 1

parental care/investment

Question 2

benefits of parental investment

Answer 2

more offspring survive

Question 3

costs of parental investment

Answer 3

predation while foraging (cost to self)
reveal location of nest to predators (cost to nest)
less time to mate again or produce eggs
need more food (energy cost)

Question 4

___ and ___ are important factors in analyzing the costs and benefits of parental investment

Answer 4

how long you live and your potential for multiple “clutches”

Question 5

few offspring lead to ___ parental investment because ___

Answer 5

high
you need those few offspring to survive

Question 6

many offspring lead to ___ parental investment because ___

Answer 6

low
it’s not a big deal if some of them don’t survive

Question 7

in birds, mates practice ____ and parental investment is ____

Answer 7

social monogamy
shared between the male and female until fledged

Question 8

in fish, parental investment is ___

Answer 8

rare
if given, it is given by the male

Question 9

in mammals, mates practice ___ and parental investment is ____

Answer 9

polygyny
mostly given by females, males give little help

Question 10

species in which offspring don’t need much or any care when they are born

Answer 10

precocial species

Question 11

in precocial species, males help ___ and compete for ___

Answer 11

least
multiple mates

Question 12

species in which offspring need care at birth to survive

Answer 12

altricial species

Question 13

in altricial species, males help ___ and sometimes males and females give ____

Answer 13

more
equal care

Question 14

parental care that is given all by the mother is most common when ___

Answer 14

only one parent is required to stay and raise the young

Question 15

two influences that cause parental care to be all by the mother

Answer 15

1. anisogamy
2. if paternity is unsure

Question 16

how does anisogamy cause mother to give all the care

Answer 16

she has a higher parental investment from the beginning (has to make eggs while male only has to make sperm)

Question 17

how does paternity being unsure cause mother to give all the care

Answer 17

benefits to female are greater than benefits for male (all the offspring are 100% hers, not 100% for male)
costs to females are lower than costs to males (he would have to give up extra matings to stay and help raise young)

Question 18

when does the male give all the parental care

Answer 18

when the female is able to leave before the male

Question 19

example of a species in which the male gives all the parental care

Answer 19

waterbug: female lays eggs on males back

Question 20

male providing nourishment for the female at copulation is considered ___

Answer 20

parental investment

Question 21

when does a parent need to identify their young

Answer 21

if the parent might encounter other young that are not their own

Question 22

___ and ___ are the most common methods of identification

Answer 22

sound and smell

Question 23

why do ring-billed gulls that nest on the beach need to identify their young but kittiwakes that nest on cliffs do not

Answer 23

ring-billed young can wander into another nest easily, if kittiwakes leave their nest they fall off the cliff

Question 24

what are the costs of adopting genetic strangers

Answer 24

time/energy not for your own offspring
personal risk

Question 25

what are the costs of not adopting genetic strangers

Answer 25

might miss out on taking care of your own
might be a strong fixed action pattern

Question 26

the costs of adopting a genetic stranger depend on ___

Answer 26

the frequency it occurs

Question 27

if strangers rarely wander into your nest, it pays to ___
if strangers frequently wander into your nest, it pays to ___

Answer 27

take care of all in the nest
pick out and only take care of your own

Question 28

benefits of adopting a genetic stranger

Answer 28

male: increased mating if female choice is based on care
female: practice for when she has her own one day

Question 29

benefits of not adopting a genetic stranger

Answer 29

more time and energy for your own offsprin

Question 30

rearing young of different species

Answer 30

brood parasitism

Question 31

five reasons a bird will accept a foreign egg into their nest

Answer 31

1. rare event: chances of it happening are very low
2. can’t expel the egg out of the nest
3. no other nest sites to start over with
4. mafia hypothesis: adults prey on nests that reject eggs
5. supernormal stimulus: selection favors bigger or faster growing chicks of brood parasite species

Question 32

the goal for parents and the goal for young are ___

Answer 32

opposite

Question 33

the goal for parents is to ___
the goal for young is to ___

Answer 33

wean young so they can have more offspring
keep care as long as possible

Question 34

killing your siblings

Answer 34

siblicide

Question 35

siblicide often occurs in front of ___

Answer 35

parents

Question 36

siblicide is related to ___

Answer 36

hatch timing

Question 37

broods that hatch out at different times

Answer 37

asynchronous

Question 38

an egret’s first egg gets more ___, making it ____; the ___ sibling will survive

Answer 38

testosterone
more aggressive
stronger

Question 39

broods that hatch out all at the same time

Answer 39

synchronous

Question 40

if food is low for a synchronous brood, chicks will ___ and there is less overall ___

Answer 40

fight for food
survivability

Question 41

two hypothesis for why parents allow siblicide

Answer 41

1. insurance against failure of the first born (second egg was merely a backup plan incase the first didn’t survive)
2. environmental stability (if you have a bad year, this is a mechanism of making sure the most viable sibling survives instead of the least viable)

Question 42

in the brown booby and the nasca booby, the older sibling ____

Answer 42

drives the younger sibling out of the nest where it will die of exposure and starvation