Data from: Maternal presence facilitates plasticity in offspring behavior: insights into the evolution of parental care
Fundamental to the definition of parental care is that care confers benefits to the offspring. However, the mechanisms resulting in these benefits remain poorly understood, particularly in species where postnatal care is not obligatory. Here, we address this shortcoming using a lizard, Liopholis whi...
Gespeichert in:
Hauptverfasser: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Dataset |
Sprache: | eng |
Schlagworte: | |
Online-Zugang: | Volltext bestellen |
Tags: |
Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
|
Zusammenfassung: | Fundamental to the definition of parental care is that care confers
benefits to the offspring. However, the mechanisms resulting in these
benefits remain poorly understood, particularly in species where postnatal
care is not obligatory. Here, we address this shortcoming using a lizard,
Liopholis whitii, in which family life is facultative and relatively
simple – extending to prolonged associations between parents and offspring
within the parental territory. Using a split-clutch design, we housed
offspring either with their mother or alone during the first eight weeks
of postnatal life and examined whether maternal presence affected (i) the
expression of key functional behaviors, and (ii) learning ability in a
biologically relevant anti-predatory task. We found that offspring housed
with their mothers expressed heightened levels of activity, boldness and
exploration compared to offspring who were housed alone. Furthermore, we
show that associating with mothers during early postnatal periods led to
improved offspring performance in the anti-predation learning task.
Together these results suggest that even relatively simple forms of
enhanced parent-offspring association can have significant impacts on
offspring traits. We argue that such effects may help refine and stabilize
parent-offspring associations early in their evolution, potentially
setting the stage for the elaboration of both parent and offspring
behaviors. |
---|---|
DOI: | 10.5061/dryad.9vv1vb6 |