Question

14) The analysis of parent—offspring conflict in birds has generated some interesting observations. For example, researchers hypothesized that chicks should beg to be fed by their parents more loudly when their nestmates are less closely related. (See Figure A, where Of = optimal parental investment where the lost siblings are full sibs, and Oh for an offspring whose lost siblings are half sibs.) Do the data collected bear this out (Figure B)?

A) Yes, species that evolve extra-pair parentage also tend to evolve louder begging chicks.
B) No, the genetic relatedness of the chicks has nothing to do with the level of begging by chicks.
C) The data are inconclusive; no conclusion can be formulated.

Answer 1

The concept of parent-offspring conflict in birds suggests that chicks beg more loudly for food when they have less closely related nestmates, a strategy that aligns with observed behaviors such as brood parasitism and is influenced by genetic relatedness and life history strategies.

Step-by-step explanation:

The analysis of parent-offspring conflict in birds highlights the hypothesis that chicks should beg more loudly when their nestmates are less closely related, due to the greater need to secure resources for themselves. This can be observed in behaviors such as brood parasitism, where a bird lays eggs in another bird's nest, and the host bird raises the offspring. The presence of such behaviors, along with observations that species with extra-pair parentage tend to have chicks that beg louder, supports the idea that genetic relatedness can influence begging intensity in chicks. However, without the specific data (Figure B) to examine, we cannot definitively answer the student's question. In general, life history strategies in birds involve balancing fecundity and parental care, as seen in species that invest in long-term parental care usually having fewer offspring to reduce the risk to the survival of the species when a single offspring dies.