Parental Behavior(Caring)

IN ANIMALS
INTRODUCTION

 Male-female (parent) giving food, shelter and protection to their offspring is parental
behavior.
 No matter how non-social an animal may be, at least twice in life it has to socially interact
with conspecifics – mating and parental care (PC).
 It is defined as form of parental behavior that increases the fitness of an offspring.
 And the parental investment(PI) is a form of parental behavior that increases an individual
offspring’s fitness at the cost of the parents ability to invest in future offspring
(Trivers ,1972).
 Parental care begins very early and can go on for a long time.
How common is parental care and who provides it?

 ARTHROPODS : Scorpions, spiders carry brood on their back . Bees, ants, wasps,
termites provide shelter and food to their larvae.
 FISH : demonstrate parental care like nesting, egg guarding, oral brooding, cleaning
and fanning eggs. Care by male is more common then by females.
 AMPHIBIANS: frogs, toads, Salamanders show some parental care. Midwife toads
carries fertilized eggs on its back, frog make nest with froth produced by them.
 REPTILES: Parental care is not very common. Crocodiles and king cobra females
make nest for their young ones.
Continue..

 BIRDS: Most birds show bi-parental care. Males participate equally in nest
construction and feeding chicks.
 MAMMALS: Most care is provided by females in the form of gestation and lactation.
Less than 5% mammals show direct male care, e.g.- Tamarins and naked moles.
PARENTAL CARE, EFFECT,
INVESTMENT
 Parental Care – in general , is presumed to increase growth rates , quality and survival of
young ones , and hence ultimately increase the inclusive fitness of parents.

 Parental Effect – it occurs when the phenotype of an individual is affected by the

phenotype or environment of it’s parents.

 Parental Investment (PI)- this theory was developed by Trivers(1972) and

defined it as "any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring's chance
of surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the parent's ability to invest in other
offspring."
 CARE BEFORE BIRTH

 In animals that provide parental care, females are generally

the ones that primarily bear the costs.

a. Investment in gamete production : Females typically

produce significantly fewer gametes (eggs) than males and invest
heavily in each one. On the other hand, males produce many gametes
(sperm) and invest little into each one.

b. Preparation of the housing : Preparation of nests, burrows,

territories. For e.g. bees make hives, birds and fish make nest.

c. Care of fertilized eggs : Incubation by birds and reptiles, egg

guarding by fish, brood carrying by toads , protection of nest sites by
sea horses.
 CARE AFTER BIRTH

a. Provisioning young ones :

Feeding by birds, mouth brooding in
some fish, lactation in mammals.

b. Protecting young ones :

Parents protect their young ones from
predators .
 Early Parental Care

 Starts before the baby is conceived in the form of gamete production. Eggs are
large and rich in nourishment.

 Birds provide warmth (incubation) to the egg for the chick to develop and hatch
properly.

 The construction of nest takes much time and energy of both parents. Example –
A pig walks 5-10 km to look for a safe place to construct a nest and it takes about
10 hours to construct it.
 Factors Affecting Parental Care

Size of the litter of

brood- Age of offspring Age of the parent

If there is high fecundity(producing young in Younger parents give less care because
greater number) then there is less parental care Younger babies are weak , vulnerable to
they are less experienced and have more
and vice versa. disease ,predation , so they get more
reproductive cycles ahead .
parental care than older ones.
EXAMPLE -
They can not feed on their own.
1. Paradise fishes lay 20-300 eggs, they show Whereas, old parents provide more care
parental care and anabas lay 1000-3000 eggs so They have little muscular coordination
because they are more mature and have
they don’t show . leading to injuries.
fewer reproductive cycles.
2. Elephants give birth to one baby in few years
so , their parental care last long.
 Types of Parental Care

A. Neither parent is involved in care

B. Both parents involved in care
C. Mostly females are involved in care
D. Mostly males are involved in care
E. Relatives are involved in care / alloparenting
Neither parent is Promiscuity is associated with no parental care . In this
type no parent is involved in the care of young ones.

involved in care
Example : cavity-nesting ducks , cuckoos , cowbird
show no parental care
Both parents
Monogamy is associated with bi-parental care .Few
fish species (ex.- Mouth brooding cichlids ) .

involved in care many birds species (ex.- Willow ptarmigan ,most song
birds, tri-colour blackbirds).

Few monogamous primate species show this trait (ex.-

Gibbons , tamarins, marmosets).
 Care by female alone is most widely used in animal
kingdom.
Due to internal fertilization—this situation allows

Mostly females are males to leave, females have to care for the eggs. Males
physically get separated from progeny.

involved in care Example :

In alligators and crocodiles it is generally the female
alone that guards the eggs and babies.
Bird species in which the male has less investment than
the female during brood care are red-winged
blackbirds and wrens.
 The examples are very few in this category. In fishes
the male usually cares for offspring.
Example:

Mostly males are In sea horse, female places fertilized eggs in male's
pouch.

involved in care
Very few mammals belong, to this category.
Example :
Males of golden lion tamarin of Brazil are world's
finest fathers.
The female emperor penguin lays one during the
height of the Antarctic winter , the male takes charge of
the egg and place it on feet, tucked under a fold of skin.
 Helping relatives is called nepotism.
Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioral
ecology.

Relatives are involved

Eusocial insects (insects that live in colonies)
where sisters (full And partial) care for eggs laid

in care /
by their sisters (E.g., Bees, termites).

Alloparenting No fish, amphibians or reptiles have been

reported in this category.

In elephants, wolves, dwarf mongoose, monkeys,

lions the related females, called aunts help in
feeding the baby..
PARENT-OFFSPRING CONFLICT

Weaning Conflict
Carrying Conflict
Temper Tantrums
 Weaning conflicts
Exists in mammals where the mother wants to stops nursing but
her offspring wants to continue.
The sooner the mother weans her baby, the sooner she can
reproduce again, thus having more offspring.
The weaning conflict is not only seen in primates.
Carrying Conflict
Another conflict that is common is for riding over the mother
or carried by the mother.
It is pretty similar to weaning conflict; the mother does
everything at first, then less, and the infant gets upset about it.
So the parent doesn't want to carry it and the baby still wants to
ride.
Temper Tantrums
As babies get older and the mother
begins rejecting the baby, baby begins throwing tantrums-clinging to
arms, pulling her hair screaming and yelling.
An infant who has been rejected will begin to act more young and
helpless than it really is.
Since younger infants need more investment, the baby might trick its
parent into giving it more.
 Costs of Parental Care

1. High neonate(a newborn child ) — Mother weight ratio : The average weight of newborns in all
primate is 8% - 18% of the mother’s weight. That makes mother heavy and vulnerable.

2. Cost of lactation- When the females are bearing child they spend 35% of their time feeding young. It creates
a mental and physiological burden too.

3. Cost of carrying - In primates, the mothers physically carry their infants on their body which demands lot of
energy expenditure.
 Siblicide / Infanticide

 Infanticide, is associated with the killing of offspring after birth.

 Siblicide is when a sibling almost always ends up being killed.
In some birds it is common for siblings (brothers and sisters) to compete for food and space vigorously and even kill
each other e.g., blue footed booby and black eagle siblings kill a weaker sibling .
It is part of a parental strategy to identify the best offspring and to concentrate resource where they will do most benefit.
Example: Male cats of all kinds (including the domestic cat) kill a female's offspring to make her stop nursing and
return to fertility, so that they can fertilize her to have their own babies,( in this case infanticide can be regarded as part
of a male reproductive strategy.)
 Nest/Brood Parasitism

 It is a type of parasitism in which the parasitic bird lays its eggs in the
nest of another bird (host) and lets the host incubate them. The eggs of
the parasitic bird have evolved such that they are similar in size and
color to the host's egg.
 Best example :
Cuckoo is one of the five bird families known for nest parasitism. It
lays its eggs in the nest of another bird that cares for the hatching chick.
Cuckoo's eggs hatch earlier then the hosts own eggs, cuckoo hatchling
throws the hosts eggs/ hatching out of the nest and keep eating all food fed
by host species.
Thank you