Hormonal Regulation of Begging Behaviour

Schwabl, Hubert; Lipar, Joseph L.

doi:10.1007/0-306-47660-6_12

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Males of testosterone-treated eggs may not differ from males in the control group, because their endogenous testosterone production already leads to a maximal effect. However, the hormonal organization and activation of early begging behaviour is still largely unknown (but see Schwabl & Lipar 2002;Groothuis & Ros 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific effects of yolk testosterone on survival, begging and growth of zebra finches

et al. 2005

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Yolk androgens affect offspring hatching, begging, growth and survival in many bird species. If these effects are sex-specific, yolk androgen deposition may constitute a mechanism for differential investment in male and female offspring. We tested this hypothesis in zebra finches. In this species, females increase yolktestosterone levels and produce male-biased sex ratios when paired to more attractive males. We therefore predicted that especially sons benefit from elevated yolk androgens. Eggs were injected with testosterone or sesame oil (controls) after 2 days of incubation.Testosterone had no clear effect on sex-specific embryonic mortality and changed the pattern of early nestling mortality independent of offspring sex. Testosterone-treated eggs took longer to hatch than control eggs. Control males begged significantly longer than females during the first days after hatching and grew significantly faster. These sex differences were reduced in offspring from testosterone-treated eggs due to prolonged begging durations of daughters, enhanced growth of daughters and reduced growth of sons. The results show that variation in maternal testosterone can play an important role in avian sex allocation due to its sex-specific effects on offspring begging and growth.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific effects of yolk testosterone on survival, begging and growth of zebra finches

et al. 2005

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“…Another way of producing offspring diversity could be to produce genetically variable offspring through extra‐pair fertilisations (Birkhead and Møller 1992). Furthermore, there is also increasing evidence that female birds induce within‐brood variation in their offspring already through differential allocation of resources like hormones, nutrients, or immune factors, to eggs (reviewed by Schwabl and Lipar 2002). In some studies this kind of allocation has been attributed to “within‐brood favouritism”, the idea being the same as in the offspring quality assurance hypothesis (Reed and Vleck 2001, Saino et al 2002).…”

Section: Sibling Competition and Other Ways To Produce Variation In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hatching asynchrony as a bet‐hedging strategy – an offspring diversity hypothesis

Laaksonen

2004

Oikos

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Many birds begin to incubate before their clutch is full, which results in the chicks hatching at different times. I propose that hatching asynchrony could serve as an adaptive parental strategy to produce phenotypic variation in the offspring through asymmetric sibling competition. Producing diverse offspring that follow variable life history strategies might be a risk-spreading strategy in spatially and temporally variable environments.

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“…Female Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), for example, positioned in utero between two androgen-producing male (2M) siblings mature more slowly than females that develop between two females (2F), and 2M males are more preferred as adults than 2F males by oestrous females (Clark & Galef 1998). While effects such as these documented for mammals may represent reproductive constraints, recent research on birds suggests that variable steroid allocation to egg yolk has evolved adaptively to enhance maternal fitness by regulating patterns of intrabrood competition (Schwabl et al 1997;Schwabl & Lipar 2002). In several avian taxa, yolk androgen levels are known to vary with laying order, and these levels influence hatchling performance (Schwabl & Lipar 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digit ratio varies with sex, egg order and strength of mate preference in zebra finches

Burley

Foster

2004

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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The steroid environment encountered by developing vertebrates has important organizational effects on physiology and behaviour that persist throughout an organism's lifetime. Optimal allocation of maternal steroids to zygotes may be difficult to achieve because of the sexually antagonistic effects of steroids; thus, for example, a hormone environment beneficial to a developing male may be much less beneficial to a developing female. Research into the important topic of how mothers might adaptively adjust steroid titres experienced by particular young has been constrained by the difficulty of measuring the steroid environment experienced by the embryo at critical times in development. A potential approach to this problem has been suggested by research on variation in digit ratios in humans, where the ratio of the length of the second and fourth digits reflects the steroid environment experienced by the foetus; notably, digit 4 lengthens in response to androgens. In light of the conservative nature of homeobox genes regulating early development in tetrapods, we questioned whether a sex difference in digit ratio exists in a passerine bird, the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata castanotis, and whether observed variation in the ratio is consistent with the previously reported pattern that androgen allocation to zebra finch egg yolk declines across laying order. We established an aviary population of outbred, wild-type zebra finches, and allowed them to breed freely. Hatchlings were marked to correspond to their egg order, and their digit ratios were measured after birds reached adulthood. We found that digit ratio increased across egg order, which is consistent with a pattern of decreasing androgen allocation. Moreover, digit ratios differed between the sexes. We also investigated whether variation in digit ratio among adult females predicted variation in their performance in mate-choice tests. Digit ratio accounted for almost 50% of the variance in strength of female preference for an attractive male trait: specifically, females with higher (presumably less 'androgenized') ratios had stronger preferences for attractive males. Digit ratio may prove to be an extremely useful tool for addressing a wide range of questions about vertebrate differentiation and behaviour.

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Hormonal Regulation of Begging Behaviour

Cited by 20 publications

References 85 publications

Sex-specific effects of yolk testosterone on survival, begging and growth of zebra finches

Sex-specific effects of yolk testosterone on survival, begging and growth of zebra finches

Hatching asynchrony as a bet‐hedging strategy – an offspring diversity hypothesis

Digit ratio varies with sex, egg order and strength of mate preference in zebra finches

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