Parenting: learn from the birds
Deakin scientists, in collaboration with a team of acoustic experts in France, have completed a world-first study into how birds negotiate parental workloads, finding the answer is as simple as talking to each other.
CIE’s Dr Mylene Mariette said it was well-known that birds negotiated how much each parent worked to feed their chicks or incubate the eggs, but until now no one had asked how they reach their agreements.
Dr Mariette said understanding how birds negotiate workload was important to understand how cooperation functions in animals, and how it’s likely to have evolved. Dr Mariette said the next phase in the research would investigate honesty.