Adoption and infanticide in birds: a review  (Page 7/7)

Conclusion

Adoption and infanticide are two choices that replacement adults often have when approaching a clutch that may or may not be theirs. The adaptive value of one behavior over the other varies from species to species and depends on the general ability of the replacement adult to actually parent another clutch. When this is a feasible option, infanticide is more likely, but if there are constraints to producing another clutch, adoption becomes the more viable option. The choice between the two has evolved to account for the probabilities of paternity versus the risk of no offspring at all, creating interesting differences between individuals and species.

Discussion questions

1. The Yellow-Headed Blackbird engages in much more adoption than the species discussed. What factors, beyond the potential to impress new females, might contribute to this different behavior?
2. In a species that always adopts, such as the tree swallow, could infanticide be selected for? Under what conditions?

Glossary

• Adoption - An adult’s providing parental care for young not their own.
• Biparental Care - A system of care where two adults- a male and a female pair- take care of the young.
• Brood Parasitism - When another bird, either intraspecific or interspecific, lays an egg in someone else’s nest. This is a form of “cheating” because the brood parasite does not have to care for her own egg.
• Communal Breeding - Three or more individuals in a group reproduce at the same time, sometimes using the same nest.
• Direct fitness - A measure of genes contributed to the next generation by an individual via one’s own offspring
• Egg laying - The period of time (usually measured in days) during which a female lays eggs using sperm from recent matings.
• Extra pair (copulations) - Copulations between 2 individuals who are not in a social pair bond.
• Indirect fitness - A measure of genes contributed to the next generation by an individual by helping related individuals except direct offspring.
• Infanticide - The killing of a young animal by an adult by preventing it from receiving the resources it needs to develop. In bird species, this most often occurs by adults throwing the young out of the nest, repeatedly pecking it and leaving it to die.
• Male Investment - The amount of energy, resources and time that a male puts in to producing and raising young. This includes his preconception effort- his sperm- as well as the care he gives the young and the female bird once the eggs have been laid.
• Monogamy - A mating system where males generally mate with one female and help her to raise her brood.
• Parental care - The care given by adults to young already hatched in terms of resources and time devoted to the survival of the young.
• Parental investment - Activities performed by adults toward the production and survival of young. These activities can will reduce the parent’s chances of producing future offspring and include activities before and after the actual production of young.
• Paternity - The offspring in a brood that are a male’s own offspring.
• Polygyny - A mating system where males mate with several females.
• Replacement male - The new male that courts a female that has recently lost her old mate by death or a lost fight. If the female has mated with the other male, the replacement male has the option of either adopting a female’s clutch or destroying the clutch through infanticide.
• Social Pair Bond - A relationship between two birds, one male and one female, that defines a social understanding that they will help each other to raise their offspring. They are not necessarily a sexually monogamous pair.

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About the author

I was born in Houston, Texas and am a junior at Rice University majoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. I love trying and learning new things, so I have enjoyed studying animal behavior. I did not realize how complex the animal world was in terms of behaviors and social relationships until I took this class. Writing this chapter, I got to learn more about certain bird species and their adoptive and infanticidal behaviors and how natural selection allows these behaviors to evolve.