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Begging the question: are offspring solicitation behaviours signals of need?

R Kilner1, R A Johnstone

  • 1Dept of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK CB2 3EJ.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution
|January 18, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Offspring begging signals their need to parents, influencing parental care. However, the complexity of begging signals and parental responses requires further investigation in animal behavior studies.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Animal Communication
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Parental provisioning is a critical aspect of offspring development across the animal kingdom.
  • Offspring begging behaviors are commonly observed preceding and during parental feeding.
  • Theories suggest begging signals offspring need and influences parental investment decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically assess the theory that offspring begging advertises need to parents.
  • To investigate if parental provisioning is correlated with the intensity of offspring begging.
  • To examine the role of begging costs in ensuring signal honesty.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of empirical evidence on offspring begging behavior.
  • Analysis of studies examining the relationship between begging intensity and parental provisioning.
  • Evaluation of theoretical models of honest signaling in the context of animal behavior.

Main Results:

  • Some empirical support exists for honest signaling models of begging behavior.
  • Parental provisioning appears to be influenced by the intensity of offspring begging.
  • Complexities, including the use of multiple signals, challenge simple theoretical predictions.

Conclusions:

  • Begging behavior serves as a signal of offspring need, influencing parental care.
  • The honest signaling theory is partially supported, but complexities exist.
  • Further theoretical and empirical work is needed to address multifaceted signaling systems in parent-offspring interactions.

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