Saraux, Claire; Chiaradia, André; Le Maho, Yvon; Ropert-Coudert, Yan (2011): Breeding success and traits of equal and unequal pairs of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) on Phillip Island during 2001-2008 [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.834281, Supplement to: Saraux, C et al. (2011): Everybody needs somebody: unequal parental effort in little penguins. Behavioral Ecology, 22(4), 837-845, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arr049
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Abstract:
According to life-history theory, individuals optimize their decisions in order to maximize their fitness. This raises a conflict between parents, which need to cooperate to ensure the propagation of their genes but at the same time need to minimize the associated costs. Trading-off between benefits and costs of a reproduction is one of the major forces driving demographic trends and has shaped several different parental care strategies. Using little penguins (Eudyptula minor) as a model, we investigated whether individuals of a pair provide equal parental effort when raising offspring and whether their behavior was consistent over 8 years of contrasting resource availability. Using an automated identification system, we found that 72% of little penguin pairs exhibited unforced (i.e., that did not result from desertion of 1 parent) unequal partnership through the postguard stage. This proportion was lower in favorable years. Although being an equal pair appeared to be a better strategy, it was nonetheless the least often observed. Individuals that contributed less than their partner were not less experienced (measured by age), and gender did not explain differences between partners. Furthermore, birds that contributed little or that contributed a lot tended to be consistent in their level of contribution across years. We suggest that unequal effort during breeding may reflect differences in individual quality, and we encourage future studies on parental care to consider this consistent low and high contributor behavior when investigating differences in pair investment into its offspring. Key words: attendance patterns, individual quality, meal size, parental care, reproductive costs, seabirds.
Project(s):
Coverage:
Latitude: -38.500000 * Longitude: 145.250000
Date/Time Start: 2001-07-01T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2008-07-01T00:00:00
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Comment:
Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
3 datasets
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Datasets listed in this publication series
- Saraux, C; Chiaradia, A; Le Maho, Y et al. (2011): (Table 1) Annual breeding success and mean body mass of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) from 2001 to 2008 at Phillip Island. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.834278
- Saraux, C; Chiaradia, A; Le Maho, Y et al. (2011): (Table 2) Description of equal and unequal pairs of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) on Phillip Island over 8 years. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.834279
- Saraux, C; Chiaradia, A; Le Maho, Y et al. (2011): (Table 3) Proportion of unequal pairs in little penguins (Eudyptula minor) depending on hatching/guard success and postguard success on Phillip Island between 2001 and 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.834280