A new study from an international
team of researchers finds that an imbalance of the sexes leads to single
parenting in birds
Date: April 25, 2018
Source: University of Bath
Summary:
When the balance of the sexes is
skewed towards one gender, parents are more likely to split up, leaving the
father to care for the offspring, says a new study in bird populations.
When the balance of the sexes is
skewed towards one gender, parents are more likely to split up, leaving the father
to care for the offspring, says a study from an international team of
scientists studying bird populations.
The researchers, including
scientists from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath,
studied six different populations of plovers located across Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
Whilst three populations of
plover had a balance in the sex ratio of males to females and shared parenting
of their offspring, the scientists found that in populations where there were
more males than females, or vice versa, the parenting roles shifted leaving the
males to look after the chicks.
Professor Tamás Székely,
Professor of Biodiversity at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University
of Bath said: "When there are more males in the population, the females
have more opportunities to find partners and so they are more likely to leave
the family and mate with multiple partners in the breeding season, leaving
their male partner to look after the chicks.
