Aggression, Mate-Guarding, Male Parental Care and Kinship

这个研究项目将测试四个关于进化力量的假设，这些力量会影响成对结合的鸟类彼此之间以及它们抚养的雏鸟的行为。在雌性的排卵期，雄性与雄性之间的攻击会降低雌性后代与领地伴侣以外的雄性交配的可能性。2. 在产卵期间，雌性与雌性之间的攻击可以减少雌性的巢穴中含有其他同类雌性的雏鸟的可能性，这些同种雌性会在邻居的巢穴中产卵。3. 雄性保护配偶是对雌性行为或生态环境的一种反应，这种行为或生态环境增加了雌性与多个雄性交配的可能性。4. 雄性对雏鸟的亲代喂养根据雄性遗传父权的可能性而变化，这是由雌性在生育期的行为所表明的。这些问题之所以重要，有几个原因。高瓦蒂博士和她的同事们正试图通过测试重要的、有时是戏剧性的社会行为的当前功能效用和进化意义，来观察进化过程的发生。此外，研究人员正在测试关于“父权信心”（男性是他所关心的后代的实际遗传父亲的感知可能性）与实际遗传父亲关系的假设，通过DNA标记进行评估。这反过来又很重要，因为关于父权自信的观点在理论上是雄性动物社会行为变化的重要解释。

This research project will test four hypotheses about evolutionary forces that affect the behavior of pair-bonded birds to each other and to the nestlings they raise: 1. Male-male aggression during a female's fertile period decreases the likelihood that the female's young are sired by males other than her territorial partner. 2. Female-female aggression during the egg-laying period functions to decrease the likelihood that females' broods contain nestlings from other females of the same species that lay their eggs in the nests of neighbors. 3. Mate- guarding by males is a response to females' behavior or ecological circumstances that increase the likelihood that females mate with more than one male. 4. Parental feeding of nestlings by males varies according to males' likelihood of genetic paternity as indicated by the behavior of females when they are fertile. These are important questions for several reasons. Dr. Gowaty and her colleagues are attempting to observe evolutionary processes as they occur, by testing the current functional utility and evolutionary significance of important, sometimes dramatic, social behaviors. Also, the researchers are testing hypotheses about the relationship of "confidence of paternity" (the perceived likelihood that a male is the actual genetic sire of the offspring he cares for) to actual genetic paternity as assessed using DNA markers. This in turn is important because ideas about confidence of paternity are theoretically prominent explanations for variation in the social behavior of male animals.