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Tamás Székely - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Offspring Desertion with care? Chick mortality and plastic female Desertion in Snowy Plovers
Behavioral Ecology, 2021Co-Authors: Krisztina Kupán, Tamás Székely, Medardo Cruz-lópez, Keeley Seymour, Clemens KüpperAbstract:Abstract Offspring Desertion is often a plastic behavioral strategy that requires precise timing as the termination of parental care may have profound consequences for the fitness of parents and offspring. However, the decision process involved with termination of care is still poorly understood. Snowy Plovers Charadrius nivosus show highly flexible brood care with some females deserting the brood early and re-mate, whereas others provide extended care until the young are independent. Using a dynamic modeling framework, we investigated the effect of multiple factors on the decision-making process of female brood care in Ceuta, Mexico over a 7-year period. Females were more likely to stay with larger broods, while their probability of care was lower at the beginning of the season, when re-mating opportunities are higher than later in the season. Offspring condition at hatching did not influence the length of female care. Chick death and offspring Desertion frequently coincided, suggesting that deteriorating offspring condition may trigger female Desertion. Females deserted broods with high survival prospects when their absence did not impact negatively chick survival. Conversely, females deserted broods with low survival prospects when chick mortality despite female care reduced the value of the brood and re-mating was still possible. This suggests that female Snowy Plovers are sensitive to the needs and the value of their broods and adjust their parental care strategy accordingly. Taken together, we conclude that offspring Desertion is a highly plastic behavior that allows females to maximize their reproductive success in a stochastic environment.
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Nest Attendance does not Predict Offspring Desertion by Eurasian Penduline Tit Parents
Ethology, 2012Co-Authors: René E. Van Dijk, Jan Komdeur, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Parental care is costly, and in many organisms, the male or the female parent benefits from reducing its own care which may be compensated for by its mate. One of the parents may even face all costs of parental care if its mate deserts and leaves him/her to care for the offspring alone. Theoretical models have generated contrasting predictions as to how parents negotiate a resolution of this sexual conflict over care, although empirical tests are largely lacking. We investigated pre-Desertion behaviour (nest attendance) of a highly polygamous passerine, the Eurasian penduline tit (Remiz pendulinus) that exhibits intense sexual conflict over care culminating in clutch Desertion by the male, by the female or by both parents. We conjectured that nest attendance of parents should predict Desertion, so that the lack of care provided by the deserting parent may be compensated for. By analysing over 200 000 video frames (2.50 ± 1.36 d per pair, 302 ± 170 min/d) of 20 pairs, we show that nest Desertion is not a gradual process and cannot be predicted by nest attendance. These results are consistent with the argument that the predictable Desertion may not be evolutionarily stable, and suggest that male and female penduline tits do not negotiate clutch Desertion.
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Prolactin stress response does not predict brood Desertion in a polyandrous shorebird.
Hormones and Behavior, 2012Co-Authors: András Kosztolányi, Olivier Chastel, Tamás Székely, Clemens Küpper, Charline Parenteau, K Tuluhan Yılmaz, Adám Miklósi, Adám Z LendvaiAbstract:One of the fundamental principles of the life-history theory is that parents need to balance their resources between current and future offspring. Deserting the dependent young is a radical life-history decision that saves resources for future reproduction but that may cause the current brood to fail. Despite the importance of Desertion for reproductive success, and thus fitness, the neuroendocrine mechanisms of brood Desertion are largely unknown. We investigated two candidate hormones that may influence brood Desertion in the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus: prolactin ('parental hormone') and corticosterone ('stress hormone'). Kentish plovers exhibit an unusually diverse mating and parental care system: brood Desertion occurs naturally since either parent (the male or the female) may desert the brood after the chicks hatch and mate with a new partner shortly after. We measured the hormone levels of parents at hatching using the standard capture and restraint protocol. We subsequently followed the broods to determine whether a parent deserted the chicks. We found no evidence that either baseline or stress-induced prolactin levels of male or female parents predicted brood Desertion. Although stress-induced corticosterone levels were generally higher in females compared with males, individual corticosterone levels did not explain the probability of brood Desertion. We suggest that, in this species, low prolactin levels do not trigger brood Desertion. In general, we propose that the prolactin stress response does not reflect overall parental investment in a species where different parts of the breeding cycle are characterized by contrasting individual investment strategies.
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Sexual conflict and consistency of offspring Desertion in Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus
BMC evolutionary biology, 2008Co-Authors: Ákos Pogány, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Background: The trade-off between current and future parental investment is often different between males and females. This difference may lead to sexual conflict between parents over care provisioning in animals that breed with multiple mates. One of the most obvious manifestations of sexual conflict over care is offspring Desertion whereby one parent deserts the young to increase its reproductive success at the expense of its mate. Offspring Desertion is a wide-spread behavior, and its frequency often varies within populations. We studied the consistency of offspring Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus, that has an extremely variable breeding system. Both males and females are sequentially polygamous, and a single parent (either the male or the female) incubates the eggs and rears the young. About 28–40% of offspring are abandoned by both parents, and these offspring perish. Here we investigate whether the variation in offspring Desertion in a population emerges either by each individual behaving consistently between different broods, or it is driven by the environment. Results: Using a three-year dataset from Southern Hungary we show that offspring Desertion by females is consistent between nests. Male Desertion, however, depends on ambient environment, because all males desert their nests early in the season and some of them care late in the season. Therefore, within-population variation in parental care emerges by sexually different mechanisms; between-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern of offspring Desertion in females, whereas within-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern in males. Conclusion: To our knowledge, our study is the first that investigates repeatability of offspring Desertion behavior in nature. The contrasting strategies of the sexes imply complex evolutionary trajectories in breeding behavior of penduline tits. Our results raise an intriguing question whether the sexual difference in caring/deserting decisions explain the extreme intensity of sexual conflict in penduline tits that produces a high frequency of biparentally deserted (and thus wasted) offspring.
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Sexual conflict over parental care in Penduline Tits Remiz pendulinus: the process of clutch Desertion
Ibis, 2007Co-Authors: René E. Van Dijk, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Do the two parents at a nest make simultaneous decisions whether to care for their offspring or to desert? If a single parent is sufficient for rearing young, one parent (typically, the male) may desert and reproduce with a new mate within the same breeding season, leaving the other parent with the brunt of care. As each parent is expected to maximize its own reproductive success, the interests of the two parents do not necessarily coincide, and a sexual conflict over care may emerge. Here we investigate the process of clutch Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus . Among birds, this species has a remarkably variable breeding system, because a single parent (either the male or the female) may provide the full care of the young, whereas about 30% of clutches are abandoned by both parents. First, we show that biparental Desertion occurs within a single day in 73.7% of the clutches ( n = 14), whereas Desertion decisions are sequential in 26.3% of the clutches ( n = 5) (male first: 10.5% ( n = 2); female first: 15.8% ( n = 3); n = 19 clutches in total). Secondly, we observed the behaviour of both parents before Desertion, and investigated whether Desertion can be predicted from their behaviour. However, neither singing nor nest-building behaviour predicted whether the male or the female would desert. We therefore suggest that biparental Desertion may be simultaneous by male and female in our population of Penduline Tits. Furthermore, the parents do not appear to signal their intention to desert their mate. We argue that the parents’ interest may be actually to disguise their intention to desert.
Wui Ling Cheah - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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dealing with Desertion and gaps in international humanitarian law changes of allegiance in the singapore war crimes trials
Asian Journal of International Law, 2016Co-Authors: Wui Ling CheahAbstract:By studying British Indian Army [BIA] Desertions during World War II, and British postwar trial responses, this paper explores the complicated dimensions of Desertion and draws attention to the need for a more explicit and comprehensive approach to Desertion in international humanitarian law. The paper focuses on less known British trials dealing with Desertion, namely, war crimes trials conducted by the British in Singapore. It examines how these trials dealt with contested interpretations of Desertion. Drawing on lessons from these trials, the paper then highlights gaps in today’s international humanitarian law framework, specifically, the need to take into account the realities of Desertion, its different permutations, and the difficulties of differentiating between prisoners of war [POWs] and deserters.
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Desertion and Gaps in International Humanitarian Law: Dealing with Changes of Allegiance in the Singapore War Crimes Trials
Social Science Research Network, 2016Co-Authors: Wui Ling CheahAbstract:By studying British Indian Army (BIA) Desertions during the Second World War and British post-war trial responses, this article explores the complicated dimensions of Desertion and draws attention to the need for a more explicit and comprehensive approach to Desertion in international humanitarian law. This article focuses on less known British trials dealing with Desertion, namely, war crimes trials conducted by the British in Singapore. It examines how these trials dealt with contested interpretations of Desertion. Drawing on lessons from these trials, this article then highlights gaps in today’s international humanitarian law framework, specifically, the need to take into account the realities of Desertion, its different permutations, and the difficulties of differentiating between POWs and deserters.
Jan Komdeur - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Nest Attendance does not Predict Offspring Desertion by Eurasian Penduline Tit Parents
Ethology, 2012Co-Authors: René E. Van Dijk, Jan Komdeur, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Parental care is costly, and in many organisms, the male or the female parent benefits from reducing its own care which may be compensated for by its mate. One of the parents may even face all costs of parental care if its mate deserts and leaves him/her to care for the offspring alone. Theoretical models have generated contrasting predictions as to how parents negotiate a resolution of this sexual conflict over care, although empirical tests are largely lacking. We investigated pre-Desertion behaviour (nest attendance) of a highly polygamous passerine, the Eurasian penduline tit (Remiz pendulinus) that exhibits intense sexual conflict over care culminating in clutch Desertion by the male, by the female or by both parents. We conjectured that nest attendance of parents should predict Desertion, so that the lack of care provided by the deserting parent may be compensated for. By analysing over 200 000 video frames (2.50 ± 1.36 d per pair, 302 ± 170 min/d) of 20 pairs, we show that nest Desertion is not a gradual process and cannot be predicted by nest attendance. These results are consistent with the argument that the predictable Desertion may not be evolutionarily stable, and suggest that male and female penduline tits do not negotiate clutch Desertion.
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Post-ejection nest-Desertion of common cuckoo hosts: a second defense mechanism or avoiding reduced reproductive success?
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011Co-Authors: Csaba Moskát, Erik C. Rosendaal, Myra Boers, Anikó Zölei, Miklós Bán, Jan KomdeurAbstract:Hosts of the common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus) , an avian brood parasite, develop antiparasite defense mechanisms to increase their reproductive success. Ejection of the parasite egg and Desertion of the parasitized nest are the most typical adaptations in response to brood parasitism, but nest Desertion may also occur in response to partial clutch reduction, independently from parasitism. Some great reed warblers ( Acrocephalus arundinaceus ) showed both mechanisms in the same incidence of cuckoo parasitism: in 18% of successful ejections of the parasite eggs, they deserted their nests. We studied if such cases of post-ejection nest-Desertion are caused by brood parasitism or reduced clutch value. We experimentally parasitized clutches consisting of five or three host eggs with two painted conspecific eggs to mimic parasitic eggs, as multiple parasitism is frequent in the area. Although hosts ejected these parasitic eggs in both clutch categories (100% and 67% for the larger and smaller inital clutch sizes, respectively), we found that after manipulation, post-ejection nest-Desertion frequently occurred at small (3-egg) clutches (40%), but rarely at large (5-egg) clutches (17%). The same phenomenon also occurred when unparasitized 3-egg clutches were reduced by two eggs, but not when 5-egg clutches were reduced in the same way. A logistic regression model revealed that only initial clutch size affected nest Desertion of parasitized nests in our experiments. Therefore, we conclude that post-ejection nest-Desertion is not a second antiparasite mechanism, which might serve as a redundant antiparasite defense, but a reaction to typically small and further decreased clutch size.
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Sexual conflict and consistency of offspring Desertion in Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus
BMC evolutionary biology, 2008Co-Authors: Ákos Pogány, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Background: The trade-off between current and future parental investment is often different between males and females. This difference may lead to sexual conflict between parents over care provisioning in animals that breed with multiple mates. One of the most obvious manifestations of sexual conflict over care is offspring Desertion whereby one parent deserts the young to increase its reproductive success at the expense of its mate. Offspring Desertion is a wide-spread behavior, and its frequency often varies within populations. We studied the consistency of offspring Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus, that has an extremely variable breeding system. Both males and females are sequentially polygamous, and a single parent (either the male or the female) incubates the eggs and rears the young. About 28–40% of offspring are abandoned by both parents, and these offspring perish. Here we investigate whether the variation in offspring Desertion in a population emerges either by each individual behaving consistently between different broods, or it is driven by the environment. Results: Using a three-year dataset from Southern Hungary we show that offspring Desertion by females is consistent between nests. Male Desertion, however, depends on ambient environment, because all males desert their nests early in the season and some of them care late in the season. Therefore, within-population variation in parental care emerges by sexually different mechanisms; between-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern of offspring Desertion in females, whereas within-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern in males. Conclusion: To our knowledge, our study is the first that investigates repeatability of offspring Desertion behavior in nature. The contrasting strategies of the sexes imply complex evolutionary trajectories in breeding behavior of penduline tits. Our results raise an intriguing question whether the sexual difference in caring/deserting decisions explain the extreme intensity of sexual conflict in penduline tits that produces a high frequency of biparentally deserted (and thus wasted) offspring.
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Sexual conflict over parental care in Penduline Tits Remiz pendulinus: the process of clutch Desertion
Ibis, 2007Co-Authors: René E. Van Dijk, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Do the two parents at a nest make simultaneous decisions whether to care for their offspring or to desert? If a single parent is sufficient for rearing young, one parent (typically, the male) may desert and reproduce with a new mate within the same breeding season, leaving the other parent with the brunt of care. As each parent is expected to maximize its own reproductive success, the interests of the two parents do not necessarily coincide, and a sexual conflict over care may emerge. Here we investigate the process of clutch Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus . Among birds, this species has a remarkably variable breeding system, because a single parent (either the male or the female) may provide the full care of the young, whereas about 30% of clutches are abandoned by both parents. First, we show that biparental Desertion occurs within a single day in 73.7% of the clutches ( n = 14), whereas Desertion decisions are sequential in 26.3% of the clutches ( n = 5) (male first: 10.5% ( n = 2); female first: 15.8% ( n = 3); n = 19 clutches in total). Secondly, we observed the behaviour of both parents before Desertion, and investigated whether Desertion can be predicted from their behaviour. However, neither singing nor nest-building behaviour predicted whether the male or the female would desert. We therefore suggest that biparental Desertion may be simultaneous by male and female in our population of Penduline Tits. Furthermore, the parents do not appear to signal their intention to desert their mate. We argue that the parents’ interest may be actually to disguise their intention to desert.
István Szentirmai - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Sexual conflict and consistency of offspring Desertion in Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus
BMC evolutionary biology, 2008Co-Authors: Ákos Pogány, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Background: The trade-off between current and future parental investment is often different between males and females. This difference may lead to sexual conflict between parents over care provisioning in animals that breed with multiple mates. One of the most obvious manifestations of sexual conflict over care is offspring Desertion whereby one parent deserts the young to increase its reproductive success at the expense of its mate. Offspring Desertion is a wide-spread behavior, and its frequency often varies within populations. We studied the consistency of offspring Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Eurasian penduline tit Remiz pendulinus, that has an extremely variable breeding system. Both males and females are sequentially polygamous, and a single parent (either the male or the female) incubates the eggs and rears the young. About 28–40% of offspring are abandoned by both parents, and these offspring perish. Here we investigate whether the variation in offspring Desertion in a population emerges either by each individual behaving consistently between different broods, or it is driven by the environment. Results: Using a three-year dataset from Southern Hungary we show that offspring Desertion by females is consistent between nests. Male Desertion, however, depends on ambient environment, because all males desert their nests early in the season and some of them care late in the season. Therefore, within-population variation in parental care emerges by sexually different mechanisms; between-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern of offspring Desertion in females, whereas within-individual variation was responsible for the observed pattern in males. Conclusion: To our knowledge, our study is the first that investigates repeatability of offspring Desertion behavior in nature. The contrasting strategies of the sexes imply complex evolutionary trajectories in breeding behavior of penduline tits. Our results raise an intriguing question whether the sexual difference in caring/deserting decisions explain the extreme intensity of sexual conflict in penduline tits that produces a high frequency of biparentally deserted (and thus wasted) offspring.
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Sexual conflict over parental care in Penduline Tits Remiz pendulinus: the process of clutch Desertion
Ibis, 2007Co-Authors: René E. Van Dijk, Jan Komdeur, István Szentirmai, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Do the two parents at a nest make simultaneous decisions whether to care for their offspring or to desert? If a single parent is sufficient for rearing young, one parent (typically, the male) may desert and reproduce with a new mate within the same breeding season, leaving the other parent with the brunt of care. As each parent is expected to maximize its own reproductive success, the interests of the two parents do not necessarily coincide, and a sexual conflict over care may emerge. Here we investigate the process of clutch Desertion in a small passerine bird, the Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus . Among birds, this species has a remarkably variable breeding system, because a single parent (either the male or the female) may provide the full care of the young, whereas about 30% of clutches are abandoned by both parents. First, we show that biparental Desertion occurs within a single day in 73.7% of the clutches ( n = 14), whereas Desertion decisions are sequential in 26.3% of the clutches ( n = 5) (male first: 10.5% ( n = 2); female first: 15.8% ( n = 3); n = 19 clutches in total). Secondly, we observed the behaviour of both parents before Desertion, and investigated whether Desertion can be predicted from their behaviour. However, neither singing nor nest-building behaviour predicted whether the male or the female would desert. We therefore suggest that biparental Desertion may be simultaneous by male and female in our population of Penduline Tits. Furthermore, the parents do not appear to signal their intention to desert their mate. We argue that the parents’ interest may be actually to disguise their intention to desert.
Matteo Griggio - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Pair coordination is related to later brood Desertion in a provisioning songbird
Animal Behaviour, 2019Co-Authors: Davide Baldan, Matteo GriggioAbstract:Raising a family is not free of conflict for parents, as each parent benefits when its partner provides more care for the offspring. Resolving this conflict requires cooperation between the parents. One way to achieve such cooperation might be to coordinate parental provisioning by synchronizing (i.e. returning to the nest at the same time) or alternating (i.e. taking turns) offspring provisioning at the nest. Empirical studies in birds indicate that pair coordination of the nest visits is common; however, it is unknown whether this behaviour is directly related to different outcomes of sexual conflict, such as brood Desertion. We used the rock sparrow, Petronia petronia, a species with high levels of sexual conflict, to explore whether alternation and synchrony of the nest visits were related to later brood Desertion. Pairs with no Desertion alternated and synchronized their nest visits more than pairs in which one sex deserted. This difference in coordination was not simply a by-product of differences in provisioning by the parents. Synchrony of the visits also increased with offspring age in the pairs with no Desertion. We provide evidence, for the first time to our knowledge, that the degree of parental coordination is strongly associated with the ultimate consequence of sexual conflict, brood Desertion, supporting the idea that coordination in parental behaviour might promote conflict resolution.
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Sexual conflict over parental care in a species with female and male brood Desertion
Animal Behaviour, 2007Co-Authors: Matteo Griggio, Andrea PilastroAbstract:Each parent has limited resources to invest in current reproduction, so each parent would benefit if its mate did more of the work, which generates a sexual conflict between parents. Parental care behaviour is an adaptive decision, involving trade-offs between remating (and consequently Desertion of the brood) and continuing parental effort. The rock sparrow, Petronia petronia, is an unusual species in which brood Desertion can occur in both sexes. Consequently, the rock sparrow is a good species to investigate the behavioural response of parents to the Desertion by their mates and whether sexual difference in this response exists. We compared parental effort of pair members divided into three groups: pairs that cooperated, females that deserted the brood and males that deserted. During the period of biparental care, females fed offspring more often than males, but there were no differences among the three groups. Following Desertion the total amount of care in biparental, female-only and male-only broods differed, because both sexes adjusted their care to the absence of their mates, but females overcompensated the mate's absence while males only partially compensated. Nestling survival rate was positively correlated with feeding rate and the mean survival rate was lower in the male-only broods. We suggest that both parents, in a negotiation process, would benefit from withholding parental investment, as proposed in recent theoretical models on sexual conflict over parental care. Altogether our results show an unexpected plastic response of parents to care during the Desertion process.
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The relationship between mate guarding and brood Desertion in the Rock Sparrow Petronia petronia
Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 2007Co-Authors: Matteo Griggio, G. VenutoAbstract:In several bird species, members of a breeding pair typically face a tradeoff between remating, and consequently deserting the brood, or continuing the original parental effort. The solution of this conflict depends, together with other factors, on the interactions between the paired birds. The Rock Sparrow Petronia petronia is an unusual species in which brood Desertion occurs in both sexes and males concurrently engage in parental care and in within- or extrapair sexual behaviours. For these reasons the Rock Sparrow is an excellent species to study the behavioural interactions between pair members in this trade-off context. We studied the sexual behaviour (courtship displays, number of copulations and mate guarding) between pair members before the Desertion event in order to obtain a clearer understanding of the process of brood Desertion and/or to understand the factors ruling male investment in the current and future reproductive events. In particular, we compared the sexual behaviour of the pair members divided in three groups of pairs: females that cooperate with males (Biparental nests); males that deserted the brood (Female-only nests) and females that deserted (Male-only nests). During the female’s fertile period, males that will desert the brood guarded and courted their females significantly more than other males. Moreover, during the young’s care phase, males guarded their deserting females more than other males. These results indicate that pair member interactions are important in the Desertion process, as assumed by recent theoretical models. This is one of the few studies to show the importance of mate guarding in the brood Desertion process.