A critical analysis of 'false-feeding' behavior in a cooperatively breeding bird: disturbance effects, satiated nestlings or deception?

Title
A critical analysis of 'false-feeding' behavior in a cooperatively breeding bird: disturbance effects, satiated nestlings or deception?
Publication Date
2007
Author(s)
McDonald, Paul
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9541-3304
Email: pmcdon21@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:pmcdon21
Kazem, AJN
Wright, Jonathan
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Springer
Place of publication
Germany
DOI
10.1007/s00265-007-0394-2
UNE publication id
une:8146
Abstract
'False feeding,' where helpers arrive at nests with food but fail to provision the young, has been reported in several cooperative species. This and other potentially 'deceptive' behavior has been interpreted as indicating that helping may operate as a signal within such social groups. We critically examine these phenomena in the provisioning behavior of the bell miner 'Manorina melanophrys'. Excessively close observation distances can artificially elevate the rate of false feeding in this (and other) species, but once this had been accounted for, there was little evidence for any 'deceptive' behavior by helpers or breeders. Natural and experimentally induced variation in the presence of a potential conspecific audience at the nest did not have any consistent influence upon the rate of false feeds, which was low at 7.94% of 6,880 nest visits. Instead, encountering unexpectedly low levels of brood demand provided a more parsimonious explanation for those visits where helpers failed to feed nestlings or ate the food themselves. Failure to completely transfer a load to nestlings was more likely when the load contained a high proportion of sticky lerp, indicating a simple prey-transfer problem. Finally, individuals that arrived at nests without prey were often members of neighboring breeding pairs, suggesting that these few non-feeding visits may instead involve an information-gathering function. We, therefore, suggest that future studies explicitly exclude the possibility of observer disturbance and all aspects of normal provisioning behavior before applying the terms 'false feeding' or 'deceptive' and inferring anything more than straightforward helping at the nest.
Link
Citation
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 61(10), p. 1623-1635
ISSN
1432-0762
0340-5443
Start page
1623
End page
1635

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