How did the Great Auk raise its young?
The extant auks show three strategies of chick rearing--precocial (chicks leave the nest site when a few days old), intermediate (young raised to a mass of around 20% of adult mass) and semi-precocial (young raised to a mass of around 65% of adult mass). It is not known which strategy the extinct Great Auk used. In this paper, we investigate this issue by a novel combination of a time and energy budget model and phylogenetic comparison. The first approach indicates that for reasonable estimates of the equation parameters, the Great Auk could have followed an intermediate strategy. For a limited range of parameters, the Great Auk could have followed the semi-precocial strategy. Phylogenetic comparison shows that it is unlikely that the Great Auk followed a precocial strategy. The results suggest that the Great Auk followed an intermediate strategy as does its presumed closest extant relative the Razorbill.
Houston
A I
AI
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, UK. A.I.Houston@Bristol.ac.uk
Wood
J
J
Wilkinson
M
M
D000818:Animals; D046091:Charadriiformes / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009425:Nesting Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D010332:Paternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors