Open AccessDecreasing parental task specialization promotes conditional cooperation
Author(s) -
Arne Iserbyt,
Nolwenn Fresneau,
Tiffanie Kortenhoff,
Marcel Eens,
Wendt Müller
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/s41598-017-06667-1
Subject(s) - provisioning , foraging , paternal care , negotiation , offspring , psychology , task (project management) , division of labour , variation (astronomy) , biology , developmental psychology , computer science , ecology , sociology , economics , genetics , pregnancy , market economy , telecommunications , social science , physics , management , astrophysics
How much to invest in parental care and by who remain puzzling questions fomented by a sexual conflict between parents. Negotiation that facilitates coordinated parental behaviour may be key to ease this costly conflict. However, understanding cooperation requires that the temporal and sex-specific variation in parental care, as well as its multivariate nature is considered. Using a biparental bird species and repeated sampling of behavioural activities throughout a major part of reproduction, we show a clear division of tasks between males and females in provisioning, brooding and foraging. Such behavioural specializations fade with increasing nestling age, which stimulates the degree of alternated feeding visits, as a recently promoted form of conditional cooperation. However, such cooperation is thought to benefit offspring development, which is not supported by our data. Thus, from a proximate point of view, conditional cooperation via alternation critically depends on the division of parental tasks, while the ultimate benefits have yet to be shown.