Parental care is all those behaviors that are aimed at the well-being and survival of their offspring. The intensity and type of parental care varies from species to species, according to the type of environmental and predatory pressure, the social system and the characteristics of the species in question.
- Read also: The animal father: bad parents and The animal father: good parents
The most important thing parents can teach their children is how to get on without them. ( Frank A. Clark)
Types of parental care
The classic examples of parental care are those of birds and mammals. Less known are those treatments adopted by other vertebrates, such as reptiles, amphibians and fish, and by some invertebrates (for example bees). In general we can distinguish the following types of parental care:
- Nutrition;
- Defense (from predators and conspecifics);
- Transport;
- Teaching (eg grizzly bear) (not always present).
The worker bees take care of the larvae until their complete transformation.
The parental investment
We have already said that these treatments are carried out by parents to increase the survival of their children. Better survival also improves fitness , i.e. reproductive success, and this leads to greater efficiency in the transmission of one’s genes. However, these treatments come at a cost to the parent.
This model is called parental investment (RL Trivers 1972), that is, when parental care increases the child’s chances of developing, growing and, once it reaches adulthood, reproducing. However, in order to be parental care behavior it is necessary that parents pay a cost for this care, that is, that it is not just their presence that benefits the offspring. Simply put, parental care occurs when one or both parents invest in the future reproductive success of their offspring.
The price to pay is high
The price to pay for these treatments is generally quite high. Let’s think about it for a moment. We are in a very variable environment , that is, food is scarce, the climatic conditions are not very favorable and the predatory pressure is high. To ensure that the newborns are born and survive there is a need for greater care towards them. The parent, therefore, prepares a nest sheltered from the elements, provides food to feed the young and protects the territory from predators.
What we have just said requires a very high energy consumption , but not only! The parent who is busy keeping an eye on the little ones does not have time to feed. In addition to this, there is also an impact on fitness, that is, the parent cannot reproduce until the little ones are old enough to live independently.
Even uncles and brothers can participate in the care of the baby.
Brief mention of Kin Selection
In addition to considering the actions carried out by the parents themselves, there is also another component to consider which is that of parental selection ( kin selection) . Simply put, an individual will be more likely to help another individual they are genetically related to, rather than one they are not genetically similar to. A relative, therefore, can increase the chances of survival of children who are not their own, only if this help does not compromise their ability to produce children and that it is the best way of “genetic success”. That is, the costs must not exceed the benefits.
This model is mathematically formulated through Hamilton‘s rule : rb – c> 0 (where r is the kinship coefficient, b are the benefits, c are the costs).
