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Related Experiment Video

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Limited Bedding and Nesting as a Model for Early-Life Adversity in Mice

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Begging coordination between siblings in Black-headed Gulls.

Alain Blanc¹, Nicolas Ogier, Angélique Roux

¹Equipe de neuro-éthologie sensorielle ENES/CNPS, CNRS UMR 8195, université de Saint-Etienne, rue Michelon, Saint-Etienne, France.

Comptes Rendus Biologies

|September 7, 2010

Summary

Black-headed Gull chicks develop synchronized begging behaviors, shifting from individual calls to group signals. Parents may influence this plasticity by favoring coordinated begging and adjusting their response thresholds.

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Area of Science:

Animal Behavior
Evolutionary Biology
Ornithology

Background:

Communication is increasingly viewed through a network of signallers and receivers.
Parent-offspring interactions in birds, often studied as dyadic systems, involve complex communication dynamics.
Family conflicts over resources drive communication between parents and offspring, as well as among siblings.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the emergence of intra-brood begging synchrony in Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) chicks.
To understand the role of parents and sibling interactions in shaping chick communication strategies.
To explore the dynamical aspects of begging behavior in altricial birds.

Main Methods:

Monitoring five Black-headed Gull nests throughout the entire chick-rearing period.
Observing and recording begging behaviors of individual chicks within two-chick broods.
Analyzing the transition from solitary to simultaneous begging patterns.

Main Results:

Begging behavior transitions from solitary phases by junior and senior nestlings to intra-brood simultaneity.
Siblings often synchronize begging signals, potentially limiting individual effort.
Parents respond to whole-brood begging intensity and elevate response thresholds over the rearing period.

Conclusions:

Begging behavior in Black-headed Gull chicks exhibits a dynamical emergence of synchrony.
Parental responses, favoring coordinated begging and adjusting thresholds, may significantly influence this behavioral plasticity.
The findings highlight the importance of a network perspective in understanding avian parent-offspring communication.