Broodmate aggression and life history variation in accipitrid birds of prey.

ABSTRACT: Aggressive sibling competition for parental food resources is relatively infrequent in animals but highly prevalent and extreme among certain bird families, particularly accipitrid raptors (Accipitriformes). Intense broodmate aggression within this group is associated with a suite of traits including a large adult size, small broods, low provisioning rates, and slow development. In this study, we apply phylogenetic comparative analyses to assess the relative importance of several behavioral, morphological, life history, and ecological variables as predictors of the intensity of broodmate aggression in 65 species of accipitrid raptors. We show that intensity of aggression increases in species with lower parental effort (small clutch size and low provisioning rates), while size effects (adul

SUBMITTER: Redondo T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6706193 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature