Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris)
Life-history theory assumes that selection favors parents that can maximize their reproductive success via behavioral strategies. As brood size determines the reproductive value of each nestling, parents may adjust their food-allocation patterns according to brood size. We test this assumption in th...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Zoology |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 2024-06-23T07:52:31+00:00 Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) Du, Bo Liu, Chang-Jing Bao, Shi-Jie 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 93, issue 4, page 273-279 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 2015 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 2024-06-13T04:10:49Z Life-history theory assumes that selection favors parents that can maximize their reproductive success via behavioral strategies. As brood size determines the reproductive value of each nestling, parents may adjust their food-allocation patterns according to brood size. We test this assumption in the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris (L., 1758)). Our findings revealed that nestling begging forms varied with brood size, by gaping in one-chick broods and postural activity in two- and three-chick broods. Accordingly, parental food-allocation patterns differed in different-sized broods. In one-chick broods, parents increased feeding rates with the gaping duration of nestling. In two-chick broods, parents did not change food-allocation patterns according to nestlings’ begging. In three-chick broods, however, they fed later-hatched nestlings more even when early-hatched nestlings begged more intensely. Horned Larks exhibited obvious sexual differences in parenting style and ability, which resulted in nestlings from two- and three-chick broods changing their begging intensity according to the sex of the provisioning adult. Furthermore, nestling growth pattern diverged with brood sizes, with body mass growing faster in one-chick broods than in two- and three-chick broods. Growth rate of beak gape and tarsus length did not differ significantly among brood sizes, but beak gape was larger and tarsus length was shorter in one-chick broods than in larger broods at fledging. Our results thus support the idea that parents may use food allocation to regulate sibling rivalry, which in turn cause nestlings to beg food in different forms and grow in different patterns so that their reproductive success can be enhanced. Article in Journal/Newspaper Eremophila alpestris Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 93 4 273 279 |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
Life-history theory assumes that selection favors parents that can maximize their reproductive success via behavioral strategies. As brood size determines the reproductive value of each nestling, parents may adjust their food-allocation patterns according to brood size. We test this assumption in the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris (L., 1758)). Our findings revealed that nestling begging forms varied with brood size, by gaping in one-chick broods and postural activity in two- and three-chick broods. Accordingly, parental food-allocation patterns differed in different-sized broods. In one-chick broods, parents increased feeding rates with the gaping duration of nestling. In two-chick broods, parents did not change food-allocation patterns according to nestlings’ begging. In three-chick broods, however, they fed later-hatched nestlings more even when early-hatched nestlings begged more intensely. Horned Larks exhibited obvious sexual differences in parenting style and ability, which resulted in nestlings from two- and three-chick broods changing their begging intensity according to the sex of the provisioning adult. Furthermore, nestling growth pattern diverged with brood sizes, with body mass growing faster in one-chick broods than in two- and three-chick broods. Growth rate of beak gape and tarsus length did not differ significantly among brood sizes, but beak gape was larger and tarsus length was shorter in one-chick broods than in larger broods at fledging. Our results thus support the idea that parents may use food allocation to regulate sibling rivalry, which in turn cause nestlings to beg food in different forms and grow in different patterns so that their reproductive success can be enhanced. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Du, Bo Liu, Chang-Jing Bao, Shi-Jie |
spellingShingle |
Du, Bo Liu, Chang-Jing Bao, Shi-Jie Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
author_facet |
Du, Bo Liu, Chang-Jing Bao, Shi-Jie |
author_sort |
Du, Bo |
title |
Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
title_short |
Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
title_full |
Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
title_fullStr |
Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the Horned Lark ( Eremophilaalpestris) |
title_sort |
begging form and growth pattern of nestlings correlate with parental food-allocation patterns in the horned lark ( eremophilaalpestris) |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 |
genre |
Eremophila alpestris |
genre_facet |
Eremophila alpestris |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 93, issue 4, page 273-279 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0235 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
93 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
273 |
op_container_end_page |
279 |
_version_ |
1802643829073903616 |