Should I eat the kids? When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring

It is difficult to see how filial cannibalism, the consumption of one’s own offspring, can be an adaptive evolutionary strategy. It is, however, common in many animals, and surprisingly is often coupled with parental care, according to a report published by Oxford University Zoologist Dr Michael Bonsall, and Hope Klug from the University of Florida, in this month’s American Naturalist.

Funded by the Royal Society and the National Science Foundation, “When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring: the evolution of parental care and filial cannibalism,” highlights the potential importance of a range of factors in the evolution of filial cannibalism using a mathematical model of analysis. It is potentially affected by the ability to selectively consume lower quality offspring, preferences associated with mate choice, density-mediated survival, and population dynamics.

Professor Michael Bonsall, a Royal Society Research Fellow and University Lecturer in Mathematical Biology at Oxford University, said: ‘This sort of behaviour - cannibalising your offspring - is widespread amongst different animal groups. We show that there is not a single benefit to eating your offspring, and it depends on several factors and explanations.’

Caring females such as the bank vole, the house finch, and the wolf spider often consume their young, and both parents of the burying beetle are known to consume some of their offspring. Filial cannibalism has also been well documented in fish species with paternal care during the egg stage.

It was previously thought that energetic need alone is the primary factor leading to filial cannibalism, in that a caring parent gains energy and nutrients from consuming its offspring, which are then reinvested into future reproductive events. However, the researchers found that a reduction in brood size reduces anticipated competition and thus affects survival of the remaining offspring.

The ability to abandon or consume offspring during the course of parental care can actually help the evolution of parent care. An analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of offspring abandonment, filial cannibalism, and parental care illustrates that these behaviours have the potential to coexist.

Source: Oxford University

Related stories:

Baby's smell tamps down dad's testosterone levels
Does eau de infant make dad a better parent? It does, it seems, if you are a common marmoset, a New World monkey known for its collaborative approach to rearing offspring.
European parliament calls for ban on cloned farm animals
The European parliament on Wednesday urged the EU's executive branch to ban the cloning of animals for the food trade, citing reduced genetic diversity among other concerns.
Explaining a genetic disorder's unique shift
Findings reported in this week's PLoS Biology give insight into the unique characteristics of the birth defect known as Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), and at the same time, may help explain the way that a certain type of gene is expressed in all humans.
Birth during a recession raises risk of fatal cardiovascular disease at advanced age
People who suffer from cardiovascular diseases at advanced ages may have reason to suspect that the cause of their illness lies far away... around the date of their birth. A team of European researchers reports that if economic conditions at the time of birth were bad, then this leads to a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality much later in life.
Prevailing theory of aging challenged in Stanford worm study
Age may not be rust after all. Specific genetic instructions drive aging in worms, report researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Their discovery contradicts the prevailing theory that aging is a buildup of tissue damage akin to rust, and implies science might eventually halt or even reverse the ravages of age.
Long-term care fraught with uncertainties for elderly baby boomers
The continued decline of the nursing home — once the mainstay care for the frail elderly — and an upsurge in popularity of assisted living will lead to many dramatic changes in long-term care, according to a University of Florida expert and editor of a new book on the subject.
Children born from frozen embryos weigh more and do better than those born after fresh transfer
Barcelona, Spain: Children born after a frozen, thawed embryo has been replaced in the womb have higher birth weight than those born where fresh embryos were used, Danish scientists reported to the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today.
Pregnancy alone is not associated with increased risk for mental disorders
Pregnancy alone does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of the most prevalent mental disorders, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, post-partum women may have a higher risk of major depressive disorder.

News discussion:

General Science news