Delayed juvenile behavioral development and prolonged dependence are adaptations to desert life in the grey falcon

ABSTRACT: Abstract Rapid learning in the young of most endothermic animals can be expected to be favored by natural selection because early independence reduces the period of vulnerability. Cases of comparatively slow juvenile development continue, therefore, to attract scientific attention. In most species of birds, including raptors, the young depend on their parents for some time after fledging for the provisioning of food and for protection while they learn to become nutritionally and otherwise independent. Among raptors, post-fledging dependence periods that exceed 6 months are exclusive to the largest species and these have reproductive cycles that exceed 12 months. By contrast, young of the medium-sized grey falcon Falco hypoleucos have been reported in close company with their parents up to

SUBMITTER:  

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9892786 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature