Date:
April 26, 2017
Source:
American Ornithological Society Publications Office
For
species where both parents work together to raise their offspring, cooperation
is key -- it's as true for birds as it is for us! A new study from The Auk:
Ornithological Advances shows how pairs of Common Murres update each other on
their condition so that when one partner needs a break, the other can pick up
the slack.
Common
Murre parents trade duties throughout the day -- one stays at the nest while
the other leaves to forage, hopefully coming back with a fish for the chick.
Because brooding the chick requires much less energy than foraging, staying at
the nest is preferable for a bird that's in poor condition. Linda Takahashi,
Anne Storey, and Carolyn Walsh of Newfoundland's Memorial University, along
with Sabina Wilhelm of the Canadian Wildlife Service, studied the
"turn-taking ceremony" that parents perform when they switch places.
They found that the time they spend preening each other provides a way for the
two birds to exchange information about how they're doing, so that if one is in
poor shape the other can compensate.
The
researchers observed 16 pairs of murres with chicks on an island off the coast
of Newfoundland in summer 2009, recording their behavior when parents switched duties
at the nest and capturing the birds to check their body condition. Their
results show that these "nest relief" interactions take longer when
one partner is especially low in body mass, suggesting that when brooders
withhold preening and stall their departure, they're letting their mates know
that they need more time to rest; the returning mate can then compensate by
going off to forage again rather than trading places immediately. Similarly,
the brooding mate might let a struggling returner take over take over at the
nest even if they haven't brought back a fish.
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