Food allocation rules vary with age and experience in a cooperatively breeding parrot

Title data

Klauke, Nadine ; Jansen, Jeroen ; Kramer, Jos ; Schaefer, H. Martin:
Food allocation rules vary with age and experience in a cooperatively breeding parrot.
In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Vol. 68 (2014) Issue 6 . - pp. 1037-1047.
ISSN 1432-0762
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1716-9

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Although it is known that parents can differ in their optimal resource allocation to offspring in size-structured broods, the mechanisms determining differences in allocation rules of carers are not yet clarified. In cooperatively breeding species, breeders and non-reproductive helpers often differ in their fitness payoffs of providing care and in their breeding experience. Cooperative breeders thus provide an appropriate system to examine two hypotheses originally proposed to explain differences in food allocation among parents: (i) food allocation between carers differs because of the distinct costbenefit ratio of selective feeding (i.e. breeders and helpers are expected to differ in food allocation) and (ii) carers differ in their ability to feed selectively (i.e. differences in food allocation are expected between experienced adults and inexperienced yearlings). We compared feeding rates with which breeders, old helpers and yearling helpers provisioned nestlings of different hatching rank. The influence of experience upon food allocation was further assessed by comparing food allocation of yearlings early and late during nesting. We show that allocation rules differ between age classes because breeders and old helpers fed the youngest chicks most, whereas yearlings showed the opposite pattern. The role of experience was supported by the fact that yearlings adjusted food allocation to that observed in experienced adults during the breeding season. We thus suggest that food allocation in El Oro parakeets depends either on differential skills of adults to transfer food to the youngest chick or on their ability to recognize nestling needs.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology II - Evolutionary Animal Ecology > Chair Animal Ecology II - Evolutionary Animal Ecology - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Steiger
Result of work at the UBT:	No
DDC Subjects:	500 Science > 500 Natural sciences 500 Science > 570 Life sciences, biology 500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
Date Deposited:	24 Oct 2025 09:09
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2025 09:09
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/94977