The adaptive value of parental responsiveness to nestling begging
The adaptive value of parental responsiveness to nestling begging
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2007.0658
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发表时间：
2007-10-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Lotem, Arnon
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Grodzinski, Uri;Lotem, Arnon
尽管对后代食物索取行为作为亲子冲突和沟通的模型进行了广泛的理论和实证研究，但父母对乞讨的反应的适应价值从未被实验测试过。博弈论模型和实证研究表明，乞讨传递了后代状态的信息，这意味着父母在分配资源时对乞讨做出反应而不是忽视它，可以更好地将投资转化为适应性。然而，这一假设及其潜在机制却很少或根本没有受到关注。在这里，我们通过对人工饲养的家雀（Passer alcanticus）雏鸟的实验表明，一个“有反应的父母”会比一个假设的“无反应”突变体（提供类似的食物量，但不考虑乞讨）做得更好。然而，这既不是因为食物匮乏的雏鸟更有效地将食物转化为质量，也不是因为响应减少了昂贵的乞讨。相反，对乞讨的反应是适应性的，因为它减少了两个相反的风险：一个是浪费时间时，过早返回饲料已经吃饱了雏鸟和其他反复忽视一些雏鸟作为一个随机的性质，随机的，无响应的策略。本研究首次提供了父母对后代乞讨反应的适应价值的实验证据。
Despite extensive theoretical and empirical research into offspring food solicitation behaviour as a model for parent - offspring conflict and communication, the adaptive value of parental responsiveness to begging has never been tested experimentally. Game theory models, as well as empirical studies, suggest that begging conveys information on offspring state, which implies that parental investment can be better translated to fitness by responding to begging when allocating resources rather than by ignoring it. However, this assumption and its underlying mechanisms have received little or no attention. Here we show by experiments with hand-raised house sparrow (Passer domesticus) nestlings that a 'responsive parent' will do better than a hypothetical 'non- responsive' mutant (that provides similar food amounts, but irrespective of begging). This is neither because food-deprived nestlings convert food to mass more efficiently, however, nor because responsiveness reduces costly begging. Rather, responsiveness to begging is adaptive because it reduces two opposing risks: one is wasting time when returning too soon to feed already satiated nestlings and the other is repeatedly overlooking some nestlings as a result of the stochastic nature of a random, non-responsive strategy. This study provides the first experimental evidence for the adaptive value of parental responsiveness to offspring begging.