Sex roles, parental care and offspring growth in two contrasting coucal species.

ABSTRACT: The decision to provide parental care is often associated with trade-offs, because resources allocated to parental care typically cannot be invested in self-maintenance or mating. In most animals, females provide more parental care than males, but the reason for this pattern is still debated in evolutionary ecology. To better understand sex differences in parental care and its consequences, we need to study closely related species where the sexes differ in offspring care. We investigated parental care in relation to offspring growth in two closely related coucal species that fundamentally differ in sex roles and parental care, but live in the same food-rich habitat with a benign climate and have a similar breeding phenology. Incubation patterns differed and uniparental male black coucals f

SUBMITTER: Goymann W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5098986 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature