Male New Zealand robins (Petroica longipes) cater to their mate's desire when sharing food in the wild.

ABSTRACT: In many species that have bi-parental care, food-sharing males provide vital nutritional resources to their mates during reproduction. However, it is currently unknown whether females can signal specific desires to their mates, or if males can cater to female desire in the wild. Here we investigate whether and how wild male North Island robins (Petroica longipes) respond to changes in their mates' desires and nutritional need when sharing food. We demonstrate that wild female robins' desire for particular foods changes over short time periods; when given the choice between two types of insect larvae, females prefer the type they have not recently eaten. In our experiments, wild male robins preferentially shared the larvae type that their mate was most likely to desire and also increased th

SUBMITTER: Shaw RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5429848 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature