Article
Zoology
Juan Jose Soler, Manuel Martin-Vivaldi, Sona Nuhlickova, Cristina Ruiz-Castellano, Monica Mazorra-Alonso, Ester Martinez-Renau, Manfred Eckenfellner, Jan Svetlik, Herbert Hoi
Summary: Sibling cannibalism is found to be common in the Eurasian hoopoe, with a higher incidence in the Spanish population compared to the Austrian population. The higher occurrence of sibling cannibalism in the southern population may be due to more nestlings condemned to die. Factors such as hatching failure, food scarcity, and hatching asynchrony influence the likelihood and intensity of sibling cannibalism.
ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Amanda Savagian, Christina Riehl
Summary: In social groups, receiving assistance from other caregivers can help parents conserve energy and raise more offspring. However, the costs of caring for extra young in a shared brood may exceed the benefits when additional caregivers also produce offspring. Our study on greater anis, a communally breeding bird, found that larger broods of offspring experience increased competition that significantly affects resource allocation, despite the presence of additional caregivers. These findings suggest that the costs of intrabrood competition in large broods may outweigh the benefits of provisioning from additional caregivers. Rating: 7/10.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Ji-Won Kang, Jong-Koo Lee
Summary: This study aimed to determine if the brood reduction hypothesis could explain asynchronous hatching in passerines. Infrared cameras were used to observe the nest boxes of great tits, and it was found that there was no significant difference in feeding between hatchlings of different orders. Additionally, no selective distribution of food to older nestlings was observed over time. Therefore, alternative hypotheses should be explored to explain the asynchronous hatching in passerines.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Benedetta Catitti, Urs G. Kormann, Valentijn S. van Bergen, Martin U. Gruebler
Summary: Aggression plays a crucial role in dominance acquisition in animal societies, but how it is influenced by changing external and internal conditions remains unclear. This study found that food provisioning affects aggression patterns and food allocation in growing red kite nestlings. The results suggest that different aggression patterns allow for catch-up growth after periods of low food, modulating environmental effects on juvenile development.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Holger Zimmerman, Deryk Tolman, Martin Reichard
Summary: Offspring of brood parasites compete for resources, but rarely resort to cannibalism. Cannibalism is used to mitigate starvation, not eliminate competition.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Zoology
Manuel Soler, Francisco Ruiz-Raya, Lucia Sanchez-Perez, Juan Diego Ibanez-Alamo, Juan Jose Soler
Summary: Hatching asynchrony in birds is considered an adaptation to reduce the number of nestlings. However, in species with extreme hatching asynchrony, the last-hatched nestlings have a low probability of survival, challenging the notion of it being an adaptation. This study proposes a new hypothesis, the Male Manipulation Hypothesis, which suggests that asynchronous hatching increases the feeding requirements of the brood, thereby inducing males to increase their provisioning effort.
ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Yui Imasaki, Tomoji Endo
Summary: Sibling cannibalism is observed in the solitary wasp Isodontia harmandi, with more frequent occurrences in low-prey conditions and female pairs. Cannibalism tended to occur earlier as the amount of remaining prey decreased rapidly. Cannibals were larger than their victims, and cannibalism provided nutritional gains and reduced resource competition.
ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Manuel Soler, Francisco Ruiz-Raya, Lucia Sanchez-Perez, Juan Diego Ibanez-Alamo
Summary: Brood reduction in asynchronously hatching birds can be caused by scramble competition among nestmates or parents ignoring the begging from the smallest nestling. Experimental results with Eurasian blackbird nests showed that smaller nestlings received less food regardless of whether sibling competition was present or not. Males preferentially fed larger nestlings, while females showed no feeding differences.
Article
Ornithology
Sara J. Miller, Cheryl R. Dykstra, Virginie Rolland, Melinda M. Simon, Jeffrey L. Hays, James C. Bednarz
Summary: In raptor species, hatching asynchrony leads to a size hierarchy among nestlings, which may facilitate brood reduction through sibling aggression-induced mortality. This study investigated the relationships among hatching asynchrony, sibling aggression, and nestling feeding rates in Red-shouldered Hawk nestlings. The study found that hatch rank was an important predictor of aggression exhibited by individual nestlings, but not a determinant of nestling food consumption rates.
JOURNAL OF RAPTOR RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rafal Martyka, Ewa B. Sliwinska, Piotr Tryjanowski
Summary: The early-life environment can significantly shape the morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits of offspring, with factors like nutritional and social conditions, maternal immunizations, and brood size manipulation playing crucial roles. While maternal immunization did not directly affect offspring behavior in this study, brood size manipulation was shown to impact the breathing rate and aggression levels of offspring. The findings suggest that the interaction between immune-mediated maternal effects and post-hatching rearing conditions may affect offspring morphology differently from behavior.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Matthew Ridenour, Leon J. Spicer, Jennifer L. Grindstaff
Summary: In altricial animals, the ability to outcompete siblings for parental provisioning has clear fitness benefits, and this may be influenced by hormones such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). In a study on eastern bluebirds, the effects of IGF-1 on body size, growth, and sibling rivalry were analyzed. The results suggest that IGF-1 can influence the growth of bluebird nestlings.
GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
David Diez-Mendez, Kasun H. Bodawatta, Inga Freiberga, Irena Kleckova, Knud A. Jonsson, Michael Poulsen, Katerina Sam
Summary: This study investigates the effect of early-life disruptions of gut microbiome on wild bird nestlings. The treatment of antibiotics and probiotics did not affect the growth and composition of nestling gut microbiomes. Nestling gut microbiomes were mainly influenced by nest environment and mother, with some influence from fathers. The distance between nests increased inter-brood microbiome dissimilarity, particularly in Great tits.
Article
Ornithology
Urszula Zaremba, Artur Golawski, Zbigniew Kasprzykowski
Summary: This study analyzed the impacts of various factors on the growth rate of Marsh Harrier nestlings, including hatching order, nestling subperiod, brood size, and weather conditions. Results showed that hatching order and nestling subperiod influenced nestling growth, while brood size did not. The study also found that precipitation had a negative impact on growth in the second subperiod.
JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Karen L. Wiebe
Summary: The study examined sex allocation in northern flickers over a period of 16 years. The results showed no significant bias towards either sex at the population level or within broods. High-quality parents did not produce more offspring of a specific sex. The study also found that female flickers tended to allocate more of the cheaper sex to last-hatched offspring in asynchronous broods.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Pedro Gonzalez-Redondo, Fatima Quesada-Perez
Summary: This study evaluated the effects of different sibling contact regimes on egg performance and hatching synchrony in red-legged partridge eggs. The results showed that eggs in contact during the hatching phase had shorter incubation length and increased hatching synchrony. This indicates that allowing eggs to have contact during incubation can maximize hatching synchrony in artificial incubation.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2022)