Parental conflict in birds: comparative analyses of offspring development, ecology and mating opportunities.

ABSTRACT: Parents often conflict over how much care to provide to their offspring. This conflict is expected to produce a negative relationship between male and female parental care, the strength of which may be mediated by both ecological and life-history variables. Previous studies have observed such trade-offs, but it is not known how generally they occur. Traditional views of sexual conflict place great importance on ecological factors in determining levels of parental care, whereas alternative views propose that the key determinant is mating opportunity. We carried out a broad-scale comparative study of parental conflict using 193 species from 41 families of birds. Using phylogenetic comparative analysis, we establish the generality of intersexual parental care conflict. We also show that paren

SUBMITTER: Olson VA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2593723 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature