Contribution of avian male and female into parental care has been a hot topic in behavioural and evolutionary ecology for a long time. However, the majority of studies have considered the issue from the perspective of sexual conflict. The possibility of parental cooperation has been clearly neglected, while cooperation between the partners resulting in higher survival of the offspring and breeding adults might be favoured by the selection (Griffith 2019).
In this project we consider male and female parental care in the context of parents cooperation, using the little auk (Alle alle) as a model species – a seabird with typical traits of long-life history species (long-lived, long-term pair bonds, long and extensive bi-parental care). As a proxy for the cooperation between the sexes we use coordination of male and female parental performance. We evaluate the coordination level of parental performance across various contexts (breeding stages, various environmental conditions), and examine relationships between the level of coordination and parents’ fitness.
Specifically, we test four hypotheses: First, we expect that coordination of parental performance between the partners, even if changes across the context (stage of breeding season, environmental situation) is a pair-specific trait, and is related to the strength of pair-bond. Second, we expect that parents coordinate their incubation shifts in a way that optimizes the time spent in the nest by each parent and minimizes the risk of egg being neglected. Third, we expect that parents coordinate their foraging flights in a way that optimizes their own and chick’s feeding rate. Finally, we expect that the level of coordination of parental performance affects the birds’ fitness.
We have already performed all the fieldwork for this project, and it is now in acute phase of data analysis. Our first results are already published here and here, but more are on the way!
People: Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas (principal investigator and supervisor of AG), Antoine Grissot (PhD student), Dariusz Jakubas (investigator), Marion Devogel (investigator), Dorota Kidawa (investigator), Alexandre Vong (field assistant), Lauraleen Altmeyer (student), Clara Borrel (student), Emilia Zalewska (student)
Funding: this project is supported by NCN (OPUS 13).
POLar Ecology Group 