Resource allocation underlies parental decision-making during incubation in the Manx shearwater

Examining resource allocation is fundamental to understanding the relationships between a species’ behaviour and its life history. Furthermore, for biparentally-caring animals, examining the relative investment decisions made by members of a breeding pair can give insight into the extent and nature of cooperative care. As a key measure of resource availability, examining body mass changes can help elucidate the ways in which parents balance their allocation. In birds, these trade-offs become particularly stark during incubation, as maintaining constant egg warming usually requires one parent to fast. This period therefore represents a key opportunity to investigate investment decisions. We took daily measurements of body mass from breeding Manx shearwaters, a biparentally-caring seabird, during incubation, and related this to measures of nest attendance and behaviour collected using field observations and miniaturised biologgers. We investigated how changes in body mass related to the d...

研究资源分配是理解物种行为与其生活史之间关系的基础。此外，对于双亲抚育动物而言，研究繁殖配对成员的相对投资决策，有助于深入了解合作抚育的程度与本质。作为资源可得性的关键指标，研究体重变化有助于阐明亲代如何平衡其资源分配。在鸟类中，这些权衡取舍在孵化期尤为显著——因为维持卵的持续温暖通常需要一方亲代禁食。因此，这一时期是研究投资决策的关键契机。我们在孵化期对繁殖期的曼岛鹱（Manx shearwater）——一种双亲抚育的海鸟——进行每日体重测量，并将其与通过野外观察及微型生物记录器收集的巢区值守和行为数据相关联。我们研究了体重变化如何与d...