Mother‐chick interactions are affected by chicks’ sex and brood composition in Japanese quail

Abstract

Sex is a trait which leads mothers to invest asymmetrically in their young, especially in species with a strong dimorphism. Authors usually consider that members of the largest sex require the most investment by mothers. In other cases, mothers care preferentially for members of the sex that increase their fitness, e.g. males, in numerous species. In quail, a precocial bird, mother seems to take more care of their males which are more sensitive to their separation. This study investigates the influence of chicks’ sex and brood's sexual composition on the maternal behavior of quail. We evaluated three batches of mothers, composed of (a) unisex broods of males (MM), (b) unisex broods of females (FF), and (c) mixed sex broods (Mx). We recorded mother‐chick interactions during 11 days of mothering. We found that MM mothers spent more time warming their chicks and FF mothers were more active. Moreover, females rejected more aggressively and earlier their female chicks than their male chicks. Finally, Mx chicks, whatever their sex, interacted more with their mothers. Our results highlight a greater quantity and quality of maternal care towards male. Mothers invest more in male chicks. We discussed results in terms of each sex's needs.

Postnatal care generates phenotypic behavioural correlations in the Japanese quail

“…Second, mothers can interact differently with males and females and their investment is often unbalanced in favour of sons in a variety of taxa (Moore and Morelli 1979;Hogg et al 1992;Cameron and Linklater 2000) including monomorphic bird species (Stamps et al 1987;Harding et al 2009). A recent study in Japanese quail revealed that, similarly, mothers express a greater quantity and quality of care towards males who spend more time close to their mothers (Aigueperse et al 2019). It is consequently possible that the stronger impact of mothering on males' behavioural correlations is related to their privileged interactions with the caregiver.…”

Chicks from stressed females elicit overprotective behaviour in adoptive mother quail

“…Parents can adjust their behaviour to the specific needs of their young according to their sex or their condition for instance (Aigueperse et al, 2019(Aigueperse et al, , 2018Stěhulová et al, 2013;White et al, 2007). Parents can respond by providing more efficient developmental conditions, thereby optimising their parental investment (Kölliker and Richner, 2001).…”

Mothers provide similar care to related and unrelated chicks in quail

“…However, the influence of the adopted chicks on parental behaviour and on chicks' behaviour has been very few studied, even if it is known that some features of the chick (such as sex) or of the brood (e.g. size) can affect parental cares (Aigueperse et al, 2019(Aigueperse et al, , 2018(Aigueperse et al, , 2017. In mammals, mothers usually recognize first the nest before the pup themselves (Gubernick, 1981).…”