Assimilation of new founders into existing captive populations
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.1430130210.abs When new founders are added to an existing captive population, it is useful to establish a target number of offspring from each of these new founders that will maximize the amount of gene diversity retained in the captive population. This article presents a method for calculating an optimal number of offspring that should […]
Effects of early paternal presence upon nonhuman offsprings’ development
Both laboratory and field studies of the effects of pateral care on offspring development are useful for explaining and controlling offspring development, for discovering the mechanisms involved, and for explainig the presence of and variance in paternalcare. Many observers of paternal behaviors have simply assumed that paternal care has beneficial effects on the offspring. This […]
Learning to listen? Nestling response to heterospecific alarm calls
Many nestling birds go silent in response to parental alarm calls, potentially lowering their risk of being overheard by predators. Parents are not always nearby, however, and so offspring could also benefit if they respond to the alarm calls of other species. Response could be innate, particularly if heterospecific alarm calls are acoustically similar to […]
Eavesdropping on the neighbours: fledglings learn to respond to heterospecific alarm calls
Young birds and mammals suffer from a high risk of predation, and should be under strong selection for early response to cues indicating danger, including the alarm calls of other species. Despite this prediction, there has been little investigation of the development of response by young animals to heterospecific alarm calls, and none on fledgling […]