Like in most families , mealtime in owl nest can get a short rowdy . But among barn bird of Minerva fry , competition over nutrient is actually relatively civic : consort to a fresh study , these avian siblings vocally communicate the extent of their hunger , and the less hungry footfall aside for the starve to eat their filling first .
In a study in the journalBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology(as reported byAudubon ) , ecologists at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland set 27 young b owls in bogus nests with several black eye , and played recordings of earlier sibling calls at different rates , monitoring how the sound sham eating behavior . This was designed to imitate situations in which owl parents throw off food that can be divided up between multiple chicks , rather than forcing the nestlings to vie over a single piece of food . The recorded calls came from owl chick that had not eat in 28 hours .
While the bird of Minerva who see the faster playback ( indicate neat hungriness ) ate the same amount as the chicks who heard the slower playback ( a noncompetitive call ) over the trend of the dark , those who heard “ siblings ” cry faster for food paused before eating , waiting for the playback to block . These chicks ate significantly less over the first five hour of the dark , but then ate more to pay off during mum periods .
When the owlet were alone , they did n’t vocalise any more than common before eat , but when together , the parliament of owl sib confab before chowing down , paint a picture that the vocalizations are communicating - related , rather than only related to the deed of feeding . “ In barn owls , our resolution suggest that sibling vocalize to signal their intention to consume part of a food stock , a deportment that efficiently dissuade siblings from vie , ” the researchers write , perhaps because it ’s evolutionarily advantageous not to evoke your siblings into attacking you .
[ h / tAudubon ]
