Maternal programming of offspring antipredator behavior in a seabird

Judith Morales, Alberto Lucas, Alberto Velando and John SkelhornHandling Editor

Behavioral Ecology, 2018, vol. 29, issue 2, 479-485

Abstract: Mothers can transmit information to offspring via eggs or via placenta to prepare them for the environment they will experience, but evidence on maternal anticipatory effects is still mixed. Using an experimental approach, we found that gull mothers exposed to predators prior to egg laying had chicks with stronger antipredator responses than chicks of control mothers. Our results suggest that mothers may program offspring behavior via eggs.

Keywords: antipredator behavior; developmental programming; maternal effects; predictive adaptive response; yellow-legged gull (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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