Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Fixed Action Patterns

Fixed Action Patterns

A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a specific, hard-wired sequence of behaviors that occurs in response to an external stimulus, called a sign stimulus. The behavior is “fixed” because it is essentially unchangeable—proceeding similarly across individuals of a species every time it occurs.

Parental Care

Parental Care

Many animals exhibit parental care behavior, including feeding, grooming, and protecting young offspring. Parental care is universal in mammals and birds, which often have young that are born relatively helpless. Several species of insects and fish, as well as some amphibians, also care for their young.

Behavioral Genetics and Its Designs

Behavioral Genetics and Its Designs

Behavior genetics explores how genetic inheritance influences human behavior. It focuses on how genes, passed from parents to offspring, contribute to the development of behavioral traits and tendencies. This branch of genetics seeks to understand the complex interplay between inherited genetic factors and environmental influences in shaping our behaviors.
The primary methodologies used in behavior genetics include family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies, each providing unique...

Background and Environment Affect Phenotype

Background and Environment Affect Phenotype

Although the genetic makeup of an organism plays a major role in determining the phenotype, there are also several environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen availability, presence of mutagens, that can alter an organism’s phenotype.
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...

Mate Choice

Mate Choice

Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.

Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD

Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD

A complete procedure of testing the hypothesis about a population mean is explained here.
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be distributed normally. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. The sample size needed to be higher than 30, and most importantly, the population standard deviation should be already known.
In most realistic situations, the population standard deviation is often unknown, but in rare circumstances, when it...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Evidence of parental care as a newly identified reproductive isolating barrier.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Paternal care in stickleback fish.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same author

The cost of construction noise: A case study on acoustic environment alteration and survival in pupfish (Cyprinodon variegatus).

Journal of fish biology·2026

Same author

Building neuroanatomical resources for three-spined sticklebacks: Brain areas important for social behavior.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

An evolutionary shift to prioritizing mating over care is associated with consistently high androgen levels in male threespine stickleback.

Hormones and behavior·2025

Same author

Discrete genetic modules underlie divergent reproductive strategies in three-spined stickleback.

The Journal of heredity·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 17, 2026

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Published on: May 13, 2016

Consistent individual differences in paternal behavior: a field study of threespine stickleback.

Laura R Stein¹, Alison M Bell²

¹School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL USA.

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

|February 10, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Male threespine stickleback exhibit consistent individual differences in parenting behavior. Highly parental males are more attentive to their surroundings and respond faster to intruders.

Keywords:

aggression behavioural syndrome field study parental behavior personality territory defense

More Related Videos

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Published on: May 7, 2016

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Published on: September 19, 2011

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 17, 2026

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Published on: May 13, 2016

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Published on: May 7, 2016

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Published on: September 19, 2011

Area of Science:

Behavioral Ecology
Animal Behavior
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Consistent individual differences in parenting behavior are common across species.
Understanding the drivers of variation in parental care is crucial for evolutionary studies.
Parental investment can manifest in various forms, including provisioning and defense.

Purpose of the Study:

To measure consistent individual differences in parenting behavior in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).
To evaluate correlations between parenting behavior and other behaviors in different contexts.
To investigate the existence of stable behavioral types in male stickleback parenting.

Main Methods:

Field study measuring repeated male parenting behavior.
Observation of male responses to three types of live intruders: female, conspecific male, and predator.
Statistical analysis accounting for body size and nest characteristics to identify consistent behavioral differences.

Main Results:

Consistent individual differences in male parenting behavior were found, even after controlling for covariates.
Males displayed distinct behavioral types that were consistent across different intruder contexts.
Highly parental males showed faster response times to all intruder types, indicating heightened attentiveness.

Conclusions:

Individual male threespine stickleback exhibit robust parental behavioral types in a natural setting.
Parental investment is linked to overall attentiveness and responsiveness to environmental stimuli.
Further research is needed to explore the origins of individual variation in parental behavior.