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Parental Care and Offspring Development
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Brood Parasitism
A strategy where parents, like the cuckoo, lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving them to raise their young.
Precocial Offspring
Offspring that are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching, e.g., chickens.
Altricial Offspring
Offspring that are born or hatched in an underdeveloped state and require significant parental care, e.g., songbirds.
Siblicide
Behavior where a sibling kills its brother or sister, common in some bird species like the booby.
Parental Investment Theory
A theory that suggests that parental behavior is the result of a cost-benefit analysis where benefits of investment in offspring must outweigh the costs for it to occur.
Weaning
The process by which offspring switch from feeding on mother's milk to other forms of nourishment, e.g., when a lion cub starts eating meat.
Monogamy in Parental Care
A system where both parents invest heavily in the care of offspring, as observed in swans.
Filial Imprinting
A learning process by which young animals develop a strong attachment to a parental figure, such as ducklings following their mother.
Paternal Care
The care provided by the father; in seahorses, males carry the eggs in their pouch until they hatch.
Lactation
The production and secretion of milk by the mammary glands, providing essential nutrients to mammalian offspring, such as in cows.
Nest Building
An activity undertaken by many species, such as the bowerbird, to create a safe place for raising offspring.
Pouch Use in Marsupials
A specialized anatomical feature, such as the kangaroo's pouch, used to carry and nourish offspring post-birth.
Fledging
The stage in a bird's life where it grows the feathers necessary for flight and prepares to leave the nest, such as juvenile robins.
Territorial Defense
Behavior exhibited by parents, such as mockingbirds, in defending a territory to ensure the availability of resources for their offspring.
Social Learning
The process where offspring learn behaviors by observing and imitating other individuals, commonly seen in primates.
Extended Parental Care
A strategy where parents continue to provide care even after offspring reach the age of maturity, such as in elephants.
Cooperative Breeding
A system where individuals other than the parents provide care for the offspring, observed in meerkats.
Mate Assistance Hypothesis
A hypothesis which suggests males provide care to offspring to ensure the survival of their own genes, as seen in monogamous seahorses.
Incubation
The process by which birds sit on their eggs in order to keep them at a constant warm temperature for development, such as with penguins.
Parental Sacrifice
A behavior where parents, like the octopus, make the ultimate sacrifice, dying shortly after their offspring hatch or are born.
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