Parental Behaviour Flashcards
What is parental care?
Any form of behaviour that increase the fitness of the offspring
What is parental investment?
Any expenditure by parents on an individual offspring the reduces their potential to invest in other present and future offspring
MORE SIMPLE
Behaviour from a parent that increases the offspring’s fitness at the expense of parent reproduction
When do animals care?
Care increases when there is an increased parental fitness
Care is favoured when environment/conditions are harsh e.g. predation
What are the two evolutionary constraints of why maternal care is more common?
1) Only females can lactate which makes it more difficult for males to care for offspring
2) Internal fertilisation so male can abandon female after copulation but development of offspring has to happen in the female
What two species examples do males invest more in offspring?
Mormon crickets
Seahorse
What are the types of mating systems based on which sex invests more parental investment?
Females invest more = polygamous mating system
Male and female invest similarly = monogamous mating system
Males invest more = polyandrous mating system
What is double clutching in Temminck’s Stint?
Female lays 2 clutches of eggs
Female looks after one clutch and the male looks after the other
Sometimes female mates with another male who will look after a 3rd clutch
When is biparental care common?
Common in species where offspring are highly altricial (undeveloped when born) and require lots of care
Male care decreases in species where the female is polygamous as he does not want to invest in offspring that isn’t his
How do bats avoid misdirected care?
Use vocal and olfactory cues to identify to pups
When can adoption by adaptive?
May be adaptive to adopt kin’s offspring as share DNA
Cost of accidentally ejecting own offspring is high so may have to adopt
In Fathead minnows, females prefer males with eggs already in the nest, regardless who has fertilised them so males adopt other male’s eggs
