Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre
Feeding rates and mass loss during chick rearing were compared for individually marked parents of male and female Common Murre (Uria aalge) chicks at Great Island, Newfoundland, Canada, from 1997--2001. Both parents in this socially monogamous seabird species share parental care duties until colony...
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ftrepec:oai:RePEc:oup:beheco:v:18:y:2007:i:1:p:81-85 2024-04-14T08:10:28+00:00 Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre Maureen L. Cameron-MacMillan Carolyn J. Walsh Sabina I. Wilhelm Anne E. Storey http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arl048 unknown http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arl048 article ftrepec 2024-03-19T10:40:29Z Feeding rates and mass loss during chick rearing were compared for individually marked parents of male and female Common Murre (Uria aalge) chicks at Great Island, Newfoundland, Canada, from 1997--2001. Both parents in this socially monogamous seabird species share parental care duties until colony departure, after which the single chick is fed only by its father. Because murres provision their single chicks with one clearly visible fish per trip, it is possible to accurately determine whether parents differentially feed male and female chicks. Based on slightly greater mass of males in adulthood, possibly favored by sex differences in breeding roles, we predicted that male nestlings would be fed more than females. Fathers' feeding rate to sons, but not daughters, increased with chick age, whereas maternal feeding rate increased with chick age for both sexes. When year-corrected feeding rates of pairs rearing both sexes were compared, both mothers and fathers fed their sons significantly more than their daughters in the later part of the chick-rearing period. Moreover, parents rearing male chicks lost mass at a significantly higher rate than those rearing females. There was no difference in fledging age for sons and daughters. These results indicate that differential parental allocation occurs and has measurable costs even in a species with only slight adult sexual dimorphism. Copyright 2007. Common Murre; feeding rate; parental care; sex differences; sexual size dimorphism; Uria aalge Article in Journal/Newspaper Common Murre Newfoundland Uria aalge uria RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) Canada |
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Feeding rates and mass loss during chick rearing were compared for individually marked parents of male and female Common Murre (Uria aalge) chicks at Great Island, Newfoundland, Canada, from 1997--2001. Both parents in this socially monogamous seabird species share parental care duties until colony departure, after which the single chick is fed only by its father. Because murres provision their single chicks with one clearly visible fish per trip, it is possible to accurately determine whether parents differentially feed male and female chicks. Based on slightly greater mass of males in adulthood, possibly favored by sex differences in breeding roles, we predicted that male nestlings would be fed more than females. Fathers' feeding rate to sons, but not daughters, increased with chick age, whereas maternal feeding rate increased with chick age for both sexes. When year-corrected feeding rates of pairs rearing both sexes were compared, both mothers and fathers fed their sons significantly more than their daughters in the later part of the chick-rearing period. Moreover, parents rearing male chicks lost mass at a significantly higher rate than those rearing females. There was no difference in fledging age for sons and daughters. These results indicate that differential parental allocation occurs and has measurable costs even in a species with only slight adult sexual dimorphism. Copyright 2007. Common Murre; feeding rate; parental care; sex differences; sexual size dimorphism; Uria aalge |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Maureen L. Cameron-MacMillan Carolyn J. Walsh Sabina I. Wilhelm Anne E. Storey |
spellingShingle |
Maureen L. Cameron-MacMillan Carolyn J. Walsh Sabina I. Wilhelm Anne E. Storey Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
author_facet |
Maureen L. Cameron-MacMillan Carolyn J. Walsh Sabina I. Wilhelm Anne E. Storey |
author_sort |
Maureen L. Cameron-MacMillan |
title |
Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
title_short |
Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
title_full |
Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
title_fullStr |
Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
title_full_unstemmed |
Male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the Common Murre |
title_sort |
male chicks are more costly to rear than females in a monogamous seabird, the common murre |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arl048 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Common Murre Newfoundland Uria aalge uria |
genre_facet |
Common Murre Newfoundland Uria aalge uria |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arl048 |
_version_ |
1796308038381993984 |