Parent-offspring interactions in birds are evolving in the context of parent-offspring conflict over the allocation of resources, as well as parent-offspring individual recognition. Long-lived, Arctic seabirds with a single chick brood constitute an ideal system to study the parent-offspring vocal interactions. The little auk is a typical, colonially breeding seabird with long-term pair bonds. Both parents share incubation and caring over the single, semi-precocial chick, however, at the end of the chick rearing period, there is a transition from biparental to male-only care. One potential explanation might be sex-specific vocal recognition between chick and parent birds. Individual recognition seems to be crucial at the fledgling stage, during its first flight and at sea, when parental presence is crucial for the young bird to survive. Special features of little auks are bimodal foraging flights, i.e. long and short flights, serving to cover energetic demands of parents and offspring, respectively. Duration and frequency of long and short trips are somehow flexible, so may be a subject of negotiation in the axis of parent-offspring conflict.
The aim of the project is to determine the characteristics and functionality of the vocal signals in the parent-offspring interactions, specifically to investigate: 1) whether chick vocalization (begging intensity, acoustical characteristics, call structure) is related to its body condition; 2) whether the foraging flights strategy of parent birds, i.e.: proportion of short and long flights is shaped by the vocal interaction with chick; 3) whether the parent-offspring vocal interactions depend on parent’s sex; 4) whether there are inter-individual differences in the voice parameters of chicks.
People: Dorota Kidawa (principal investigator), Mateusz Barcikowski (field assistant), Martyna Cendrowska (student), Marion Devogel (investigator), Antoine Grissot (investigator), Dariusz Jakubas (investigator), Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas (investigator)
External collaborators: Dr med.vet. Rupert Palme (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria)
Funding: NCN (SONATA 13)
POLar Ecology Group 