Experimentally induced increases in fecundity lead to greater nestling care in blue tits.

ABSTRACT: Models on the evolution of bi-parental care typically assume that maternal investment in offspring production is fixed and predict subsequent contributions to offspring care by the pair are stabilized by partial compensation. While experimental tests of this prediction are supportive, exceptions are commonplace. Using wild blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus), we provide, to our knowledge, the first investigation into the effects of increasing maternal investment in offspring production for subsequent contributions to nestling provisioning by mothers and male partners. Females that were induced to lay two extra eggs provisioned nestlings 43% more frequently than controls, despite clutch size being made comparable between treatment groups at the onset of incubation. Further, experimental males

SUBMITTER: Brundl AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6599988 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature