Award details

Parent-offspring conflict and the function of avian nestling mouth colour

Reference	S12981
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Andrew Bennett
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Miss Sarah Hunt, Professor Rebecca Kilner
Institution	University of Bristol
Department	Biological Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	194,224
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/12/1999
End date	31/01/2003
Duration	38 months

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that both the rate of chick begging calls and the area of their brightly coloured gapes are used by parents in adjusting provisioning rate to take account of offspring needs. However, the function of the gape coloration has yet to be determined. We propose a systematic study involving objective measurement of coloration via UV- visible spectrophotometry. In lab and field experiments we aim to: (a) explain inter- and intraspecific variation in mouth coloration, (b) investigate the relationship between vocal cues and colour cues, and (c) assess the potential influence of sensory bias and arbitrary parental preferences on the evolution of gape colour and gape ornamentation. We anticipate that the proposed work will have important implications both for our understanding of the function and evolution of colour-based signalling, and the resolution of parent-offspring conflict, both areas of intense current interest in evolutionary biology.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search