Avian sibling cannibalism: Hoopoe mothers regularly use their last hatched nestlings to feed older siblings

Juan José Soler; Manuel Martín-Vivaldi; Soňa Nuhlíčková; Cristina Ruiz-Castellano; Mónica Mazorra-Alonso; Ester Martínez-Renau; Manfred Eckenfellner; Ján Svetlík; Herbert Hoi

doi:10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.434

Volume 43 Issue 2

Mar. 2022

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Article Navigation > Zoological Research > 2022 > 43(2): 265-274

Juan José Soler, Manuel Martín-Vivaldi, Soňa Nuhlíčková, Cristina Ruiz-Castellano, Mónica Mazorra-Alonso, Ester Martínez-Renau, Manfred Eckenfellner, Ján Svetlík, Herbert Hoi. Avian sibling cannibalism: Hoopoe mothers regularly use their last hatched nestlings to feed older siblings. Zoological Research, 2022, 43(2): 265-274. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.434

Citation:

Juan José Soler, Manuel Martín-Vivaldi, Soňa Nuhlíčková, Cristina Ruiz-Castellano, Mónica Mazorra-Alonso, Ester Martínez-Renau, Manfred Eckenfellner, Ján Svetlík, Herbert Hoi. Avian sibling cannibalism: Hoopoe mothers regularly use their last hatched nestlings to feed older siblings. Zoological Research, 2022, 43(2): 265-274. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.434

Citation:

Juan José Soler, Manuel Martín-Vivaldi, Soňa Nuhlíčková, Cristina Ruiz-Castellano, Mónica Mazorra-Alonso, Ester Martínez-Renau, Manfred Eckenfellner, Ján Svetlík, Herbert Hoi. Avian sibling cannibalism: Hoopoe mothers regularly use their last hatched nestlings to feed older siblings. Zoological Research, 2022, 43(2): 265-274. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.434

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Avian sibling cannibalism: Hoopoe mothers regularly use their last hatched nestlings to feed older siblings

doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.434

1.
Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Almería E-04120, Spain
2.
Unidad Asociada Coevolución: Cucos, Hospedadores y Bacterias Simbiontes, Universidad de Granada, Granada E-18003, Spain
3.
Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada E-18003, Spain
4.
Department of Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava SK-84215, Slovakia
5.
Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna A-1160, Austria

#Authors contributed equally to this work

Funds: This study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and European (FEDER) Funds (CGL2017-83103-P)

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: jsoler@eeza.csic.es; mmv@ugr.es; Herbert.Hoi@vetmeduni.ac.at
Received Date: 2022-01-14
Accepted Date: 2022-02-23

Published Online: 2022-02-28

Publish Date: 2022-03-18

Abstract

Abstract

Sibling cannibalism is relatively common in nature, but its evolution in birds and certain other vertebrates with extended parental care had been discarded. Here, however, we demonstrate its regular occurrence in two European populations of the Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) and explore possible adaptive and non-adaptive explanations. Results showed that sibling cannibalism was more frequently detected in Spain (51.7%) than in Austria (5.9%). In these two populations, the hoopoes laid similar clutch sizes, resulting in similar fledging production, but hatching failures were more frequent in the northern population. Consequently, having more nestlings condemned to die in the southern population may explain the higher incidence of sibling cannibalism. In accordance with this interpretation, hatching span and failure, but not breeding date, explained the probability of sibling cannibalism in the Spanish hoopoes, while all three variables predicted brood reduction intensity. Furthermore, experimental food supply reduced the probability of sibling cannibalism, but not the intensity of brood reduction. Finally, females allocated fewer resources to the smallest nestlings when they were going to starve, but not necessarily when they were going to be used as food for their siblings. These results suggest that hoopoes produce extra eggs that, in the case of reduced hatching failure and food scarcity, produce nestlings that are used to feed older siblings. These findings provide the first evidence that sibling cannibalism occurs regularly in a bird species, thus expanding our evolutionary understanding of clutch size, hatching asynchrony, parent-offspring conflict, infanticide, and sibling cannibalism in the animal kingdom.
- Brood reduction,
- Clutch size,
- Hatching asynchrony,
- Ice-box hypothesis,
- Infanticide,
- Siblicide,
- Sibling hierarchy,
- Upupa epops

#Authors contributed equally to this work

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References(52)

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