University of Delaware post-doctoral researcher
Ian Stewart is conducting research to answer this question a bit more
scientifically. His subjects – tree swallows – make human parents look like
slouches. Both the mother and father tree swallow feed their hatchlings every
five minutes, 12 hours a day. (It should be noted, though, that their
parenting gig is much shorter than ours—after 17 or 18 days the young leave the
nest.) Stewart is studying these small, migratory birds to better understand
the trade-offs they make between reproduction and immunity. His research could
potentially help scientists who study human biology better understand our own
immune system and its stressors. Stewart is part of a young but growing
interdisciplinary field called ecoimmunology, which combines aspects of
immunology with ecology, biology, physiology and evolution. He chose to focus
his research on tree swallows and bluebirds because both are fairly tolerant of
human interaction. "Some birds don't like being observed but tree swallows
and bluebirds don't get stressed from being watched or handled," notes
Stewart. There's another very important benefit to working with these
birds—since they nest in boxes, not up in the trees, they're a heck of lot
easier to catch. Throughout the breeding season, Stewart catches the
parent birds, injects them with a harmless antigen and releases them. Then, he
re-catches the same birds a few days later to take blood samples and assess
each bird's immune response to the antigens. "Some of the tree
swallows work harder at parenting," notes Stewart. "It may be because
the bird has four hatchlings to feed instead of just three. Other times, the
bird is simply more energetic at taking care of its hatchlings, regardless of
brood size."
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