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Cross-fostering mismatches parent-offspring behaviors but this does not entail costs to family life

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Abstract

Early family life is characterized by a close interaction between parents and their offspring. This needs to be disentangled when studying the ontogeny and evolution of a given behavior—e.g. via cross-fostering. But cross-fostering may change the expression of parent and offspring behaviors as they may respond to the novel environment. Furthermore, parent and offspring traits are potentially co-adjusted and cross-fostering may, therefore, introduce a costly mismatch. To study such consequences of cross-fostering, we created an experimental group (EG) of broods raised by foster parents from day 3 onwards and a control group of broods raised by their biological parents throughout. We tested offspring begging intensity in all broods and the provisioning of the EG-parents only, both on day 3 just before cross-fostering and then again on day 5. Costs were estimated in terms of growth and survival (offspring costs) and mass of a second clutch (parental costs). Offspring begging intensity varied with age, but this change was neither affected by cross-fostering per se nor by small-scale differences in parental provisioning between biological and foster parents. Similarly, the change in parental provisioning with offspring age among the EG-parents was not affected by the difference in begging between biological and foster nestlings. This lack in behavioral plasticity in response to cross-fostering did not entail costs to neither of the parties. Our results suggest a rather predetermined pattern of behavioral expression, which may be shaped by limits and costs to plasticity and/or an (apparent) lack of costs of a behavioral mismatch.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jonas Vergauwen for his help during the experiment. This work was supported by a predoctoral grant from the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek–Vlaanderen (FWO) (1.1.512.11.N to NE) and the University of Antwerp (BOF NOI UA).

Ethical standards

No deterioration of condition or abnormalities in appearance or behavior as consequence of the handling (behavioral trials, video recordings, and bird measurements) were observed. The experiment complied with the current Flemish and Belgian institutional laws and was approved by the Ethical Committee for animal experiments of the University of Antwerp (license 2011–07).

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  1. Department of Biology-Ethology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Antwerp (Wilrijk), Belgium

    Natalia Estramil, Marcel Eens & Wendt Müller

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  1. Natalia Estramil
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  2. Marcel Eens
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  3. Wendt Müller
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Correspondence to Natalia Estramil.

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Communicated by M. Leonard

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Estramil, N., Eens, M. & Müller, W. Cross-fostering mismatches parent-offspring behaviors but this does not entail costs to family life. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 1019–1028 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1714-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1714-y

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