Many families have youngsters who squabble, but for Canada jays, the fighting is intense and eventually leads to exile for the weaker siblings, with the right to stay on home territory going to the victorious “family bully.”
Now University of Guelph researchers in the College of Biological Science have calculated the costs of that early-life sibling rivalry – as well as the benefits to the dominant family bully.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Canada jays, which live mostly in Canada’s boreal forest, are one of only two bird species in the world in which the siblings fight for dominance and the right to remain in the territory.
When the fledglings are about six weeks old, they begin a multi-day battle that sees one dominant juvenile force its siblings out of the family territory, winning the right to remain with the parents for their first year.
The ejected siblings must either try to establish a new territory far away or join an unrelated pair nearby. Given the challenges of finding a new home as well as gathering a large cache of food to prepare for the cold boreal winter, ejected Canada jays often fail to survive their first year.
https://news.uoguelph.ca/2023/04/sibling-rivalry-pays-off-for-canada-jays-u-of-g-research-finds/
Now University of Guelph researchers in the College of Biological Science have calculated the costs of that early-life sibling rivalry – as well as the benefits to the dominant family bully.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Canada jays, which live mostly in Canada’s boreal forest, are one of only two bird species in the world in which the siblings fight for dominance and the right to remain in the territory.
When the fledglings are about six weeks old, they begin a multi-day battle that sees one dominant juvenile force its siblings out of the family territory, winning the right to remain with the parents for their first year.
The ejected siblings must either try to establish a new territory far away or join an unrelated pair nearby. Given the challenges of finding a new home as well as gathering a large cache of food to prepare for the cold boreal winter, ejected Canada jays often fail to survive their first year.
https://news.uoguelph.ca/2023/04/sibling-rivalry-pays-off-for-canada-jays-u-of-g-research-finds/