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Desperado siblings: uncontrollably aggressive junior chicks

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Abstract

According to the desperado sibling hypothesis, chicks of obligately siblicidal species kill their junior broodmates as early as possible because junior broodmates face dire ecological prospects and are consequently predisposed to aggressively overthrow elder broodmates by all-out aggression. The agonistic behavior of junior chicks is virtually unknown because they die so young. We investigated the agonistic behavior of hypothetical desperados by fostering junior brown boobies (Sula leucogaster, an obligately siblicidal species) into nests of the blue-footed booby (S. nebouxii, a facultatively siblicidal species) containing an older singleton blue-foot chick. Controls were junior blue-footed boobies fostered into the same situation. Junior brown boobies were 7 times more aggressive than controls and most of them dominated their elder and larger nestmates. Four of nine brown booby juniors showed relentless aggression, delivering up to 711 pecks, bites and pushes (including "expulsion pushes") per hour, thereby overwhelming nestmates 90% heavier and permanently expelling one of them from the nest. Similarly, in natural broods of two surviving brown booby chicks, the losing chick was 13 times as aggressive as blue-foot subordinates, up to at least age 7 weeks. Contrast of the two species of booby suggests the evolution of agonistic roles within broods may be partly driven by selection on potential victims to express a level and type of aggressiveness appropriate to their status-related ecological prospects.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financed by CONACYT grant 31973 and the UNAM. We are very grateful to Dave Anderson, Scott Forbes, Alejandro Gonzalez, Barb Glassey, Regina Macedo, Doug Mock and José Luis Osorno for comments on the manuscript; the Mexican Navy for logistical support; Bernie Tershey for advice on the logistics and boobies of San Pedro Mártir; Jaime Zaldivar for drawing Fig. 2; and Prescott College for logistical advice and support. The experiment and observations were authorized by the Secretaría del Medioambiente y Recursos Naturales and carried out in accordance with Mexican law and the ABS/ASAB Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70–275, 04510, D.F., Mexico

    Hugh Drummond, Cristina Rodríguez, Adriana Vallarino, Claudia Valderrábano, Gabriela Rogel & Emilio Tobón

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  1. Hugh Drummond
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  2. Cristina Rodríguez
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  3. Adriana Vallarino
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  4. Claudia Valderrábano
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  5. Gabriela Rogel
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  6. Emilio Tobón
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Correspondence to Hugh Drummond.

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Communicated by C. Brown

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Drummond, H., Rodríguez, C., Vallarino, A. et al. Desperado siblings: uncontrollably aggressive junior chicks. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53, 287–296 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-002-0571-2

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