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Dissertation Research: Testing Alternative Hypotheses Concerning Why Parental Care Improves With Age

论文研究：测试关于为什么父母照顾随着年龄的增长而改善的替代假设

基本信息

批准号：
0073239
负责人：
David Westneat
金额：
$ 1万
依托单位：
University of Kentucky Research Foundation
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2000
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2000-06-15 至 2002-05-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0073239&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Dissertation Research Testing Alternative Hypotheses

项目摘要

In many animals, parents produce more and better offspring as they get older. Two different explanations have been suggested for this improvement. The first is that as parents near the end of their lives, offspring become increasingly valuable. Older parents therefore expend more effort on those offspring. The second explanation is that older animals have accumulated experience and skills with age that allow them to be more efficient with their time and energy. Thus older individuals would be able to produce more offspring than younger individuals for the same effort. This research will explore these two mechanisms in a population of house sparrows, common birds found in backyards and on farms. Older and younger parent birds will be observed to compare how often they return to the nest to feed young and how long they search for food for their chicks. Parental ability will be tested by changing the number of young the parent birds have to feed, and by measuring learning ability at various ages.This research contributes to our understanding of changes in reproduction with age and examines potential behavioral causes of these changes. This will improve our understanding of the ecology of parental behavior and how life patterns of behavior affect reproduction.

对于许多动物来说，随着年龄的增长，父母会产生更多、更好的后代。对于这种改善，人们提出了两种不同的解释。第一，当父母接近生命的尽头时，后代变得越来越有价值。因此，年长的父母会在这些后代身上花费更多的精力。第二种解释是，年长的动物随着年龄的增长积累了经验和技能，使它们能够更有效地利用时间和精力。因此，在同样的努力下，年长的个体比年轻的个体能够产生更多的后代。这项研究将探索这两种机制在人口的家麻雀，常见的鸟类发现在后院和农场。将观察年长和年幼的父母鸟，比较他们返回巢喂养幼鸟的频率和他们为幼鸟寻找食物的时间。父母的能力将通过改变父母必须喂养的幼鸟数量和测量不同年龄的学习能力来测试。这项研究有助于我们了解繁殖随年龄的变化，并探讨这些变化的潜在行为原因。这将提高我们对父母行为的生态学以及行为的生活模式如何影响生殖的理解。