Conflict over Rearing Young Shapes Breeding Systems

October 2, 2006
Read the full article (PDF)

An article in the October 2006 issue of BioScience, the monthly journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, describes evidence that conflict between male and female shorebirds over which member of a breeding pair will raise their young has had a profound influence on the evolution of the birds’ breeding systems. Tamás Szélely, Gavin H. Thomas, and Innes C. Cuthill, authors of the article, liken the conflict to a tug-of-war played out over evolutionary time.

Shorebirds have varied breeding systems. Females care for the young in some species, males do in others, and in many, the chore is shared. In the Kentish plover, which the authors studied in detail, either the male or the female in a pair may desert, leaving the other partner with the task of raising the young alone.

Szélely, Thomas, and Innes, at the University of Bath, Imperial College London, and the University of Bristol, respectively, used a combination of experiments and mathematical modeling to analyze the behavior of adult Kentish plovers as they raise their chicks. Modeling suggested a rationale for the finding that females are more likely to desert if there are local unpaired males: That tendency emerged as a strategy likely to persist in evolution. Further analyses used molecular and other data to examine the evolution of breeding systems in a variety of shorebirds. These studies suggested that in species with chicks that need a lot of parental care, cooperative rearing is more likely to persist. In species with young that become independent early, either males or females may desert their partners.

The October 2006 issue of BioScience also contains a special section focusing on books, including an article by Jolene Kay Jesse on recent scholarship on cultural change, gender, and diversity; and another by George Boody and Brian DeVore on redesigning agriculture. The research articles in the issue are as follows:

Sexual Conflict, Ecology, and Breeding Systems in Shorebirds.
Tamás Szélely, Gavin H. Thomas, and Innes C. Cuthill

Disturbance and Aquatic Biodiversity: Reconciling Contrasting Views.
Fabio Lepori and Niclas Hjerdt

Are Vultures Birds, and Do Snakes Have Venom, because of Macro- and Microscavenger Conflict?
John A. Shivik

Development in the Sea of Cortés Calls for Mitigation.
Sergio Ticul Álvarez-Castañeda, Patricia Cortés-Calva, Lia Méndez, and Alfredo Ortega-Rubio

Contact

Donna Royston, Communications Representative.
+1.202.628.1500 ext. 261

back to BioScience Press Releases