Abstract
Cannibalism of small numbers of offspring by a parent has been proposed as an adaptive parental strategy, by providing energy to support parental care. However, there are few empirical studies to support this hypothesis. We conducted field and laboratory experiments to investigate partial filial cannibalism in Stegastes leucostictus, a coral reef fish with paternal care. Partial cannibalism was shown to be common, and males were found to remove developing embryos from throughout a clutch in a random pattern, rather than in the more aggregated pattern seen during embryo predation. Males that received a diet supplement grew faster than control males, but did not engage in less cannibalism. Also, males did not concentrate cannibalism on early embryonic stages with the highest energetic value. Experimental reduction of embryo densities was found to significantly increase embryo development rate and survival from egg deposition to hatching, and experimental reduction of oxygen levels significantly increased rates of partial filial cannibalism by males. Artificial spawning sites with low oxygen levels were avoided by spawning females, and cannibalism rates by males were higher. We propose that partial filial cannibalism serves as an adaptive parental strategy to low oxygen levels in S. leucostictus by increasing the hatching success of embryos.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (119.0 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- DeWoody J. A., Fletcher D. E., Wilkins S. D., Avise J. C. Genetic documentation of filial cannibalism in nature. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Apr 17;98(9):5090–5092. doi: 10.1073/pnas.091102598. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jones A. G., Walker D., Avise J. C. Genetic evidence for extreme polyandry and extraordinary sex-role reversal in a pipefish. Proc Biol Sci. 2001 Dec 22;268(1485):2531–2535. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2001.1841. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kvarnemo C, Svensson O, Forsgren E. Parental behaviour in relation to food availability in the common goby. Anim Behav. 1998 Nov;56(5):1285–1290. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0899. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Manica Andrea. Filial cannibalism in teleost fish. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2002 May;77(2):261–277. doi: 10.1017/s1464793101005905. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]