Parental favoritism in a wild bird population.

摘要: In most taxa with altricial young, offspring solicit food from their parents using a combination of visual and acoustic stimuli, but exactly what these young are communicating, how selection shapes parental responses, remains unresolved. Theory posits that parents' interpretation response to begging should vary the likelihood return on investment. We tested this in wild population prothonotary warblers (Protonotaria citrea), predicting bias non-randomly toward certain individuals within broods depending both size number offspring. observed parent-offspring interactions detected strong dependence between brood nestling shaping responses begging. Larger siblings were less likely during feeding events than smaller siblings, they received disproportionate share nests containing fewer-than-average whereas smaller-than-average nestlings disproportionately fed greater-than-average young. These findings suggest respond signals according multiple social cues, favoring stronger greater survival prospects when few copies genes present, overtly runts ensure whole-brood capable fledging more Future experimental studies may shed light contributions decision-making memory, learn communication systems, adaptive significance behaviors.