Reproduction and Demography of the Florida Everglade (Snail) Kite

Snyder, Noel F. R.; Beissinger, Steven R.; Chandler, Roderick E.

doi:10.2307/1368308

Cited by 51 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Parents in poor condition may terminate care and abandon their nest or young (Snyder et al 1989;Olsson 1997; reviewed by Clutton-Brock 1991; Székely et al 1996). Given that energy reserves play an important role in determining patterns of care, an evolutionary account of care should adopt a state-dependent approach (Houston et al 1988;Houston and McNamara 1999;Clark and Mangel 2000).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Conflict about Parental Care: The Role of Reserves

Barta¹,

Houston²,

McNamara³

et al. 2002

The American Naturalist

104

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Parental care often increases the survival of offspring, but it is costly to parents. Because of this trade-off, a sexual conflict over care arises. The solution to this conflict depends on the interactions between the male and female parents, the behavior of other animals in the population, and the individual differences within a sex. We take an integrated approach and develop a state-dependent dynamic game model of parental care. The model investigates a single breeding season in which the animals can breed several times. Each parent's decision about whether to care for the brood or desert depends on its own energy reserves, its mate's reserves, and the time in the season. We develop a fully consistent solution in which the behavior of an animal is the best given the behavior of its mate and of all other animals in the population. The model predicts that females may strategically reduce their own reserves so as to "force" their mate to provide care. We investigate how the energy costs of caring and searching for a mate, values of care (how the probability of offspring survival depends on the pattern of care), and population sex ratio influence the pattern of care over the breeding season.Keywords: sexual conflict, parental care, offspring desertion, dynamic game, reserves, body mass regulation.Parental care is an energetically demanding behavior (Ricklefs 1974;Golet and Irons 1999;Hõrak et al. 1999 and thus, parents should have sufficient reserves to raise their young to independence. Parents in poor condition may terminate care and abandon their nest or young (Snyder et al. 1989;Olsson 1997; reviewed by Clutton-Brock 1991;Székely et al. 1996). Given that energy reserves play an important role in determining patterns of care, an evolutionary account of care should adopt a state-dependent approach (Houston et al. 1988;Houston and McNamara 1999;Clark and Mangel 2000). State-dependent models have been developed to investigate the decision of a single sex by Kelly and Kennedy (1993) and Webb et al. (in press). For instance, Kelly and Kennedy (1993) showed that female Cooper's hawks Accipiter cooperi should desert their young when their reserves fall below a critical level. In their model, however, the behavior of deserting females was constrained by their not allowing the females to remate. In a more general model by Webb et al. (in press), a deserting female can remate and renest within the same breeding season. Interestingly, their model found that a female deserts not only when her reserves are low (and thus she is threatened by starvation) but also when her reserves are high. In the latter case, the deserting female immediately starts to search for a new mate and thus increases her reproductive success by remating.In many birds, fish, and mammals, however, the payoffs from caring and deserting not only depend on the environment and the energy reserves of the parents but also on the behavior of other animals in the population. First, the success of the current breeding attempt depends on whether the ...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Conflict about Parental Care: The Role of Reserves

Barta¹,

Houston²,

McNamara³

et al. 2002

The American Naturalist

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sykes (1987b) provided an analysis of 313 clutches by decade; these collectively averaged 2.92 eggs, with larger clutches more common in the period prior to 1940. The mean clutch size (of 2.66 eggs) reported by Snyder, Beissinger, and Chandler (1989) was apparently not influenced by water conditions, seasonality, or relative coloniality, but varied significantly by geographic location (probably reflecting food supply differences) and nest substrate. Bent (1937) reported that 68 Florida egg records extended from February 14 to July 20, with half between March 13 and April 28.…”

Section: Breeding Biologymentioning

confidence: 90%

Hawks, eagles, & falcons of North America: biology and natural history

1991

Choice Reviews Online

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“…This statement is misleading. By the authors' own account (Snyder et al 1989 , Table 2), only 62 nests were found during nest building during low water years, and the majority of these (n ϭ 39) were found on northern lakes (e.g., Tohopekaliga and Kissimmee) during 1982, when local water levels were not exceptionally low. This issue is further confounded because many of the ''failed'' nests found during low water conditions suffered from structural collapse.…”

Section: Did We Omit a Large Number Of Nests That Were Affected By Lomentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Beissinger and Snyder point out that we used only 254 of 666 nests from Snyder et al (1989) in our analysis, omitting nearly half of the nests found during low water conditions. This statement is misleading.…”

Section: Did We Omit a Large Number Of Nests That Were Affected By Lomentioning

confidence: 99%