Female conflict is for the birds

DIRECT conflicts between female birds, as well as the presence of multiple potential mates for males, play a big part in determining when adult offspring breed.

This is according to UCT’s Fitz-Patrick Institute of African Ornithology research findings (recently published in Molecular Ecology) on group-living Southern Pied Babblers living in the South African Kalahari Desert.

Plot points in romantic television series sometimes revolve around the arrival of a beautiful new sisterin-law in a family, and the resulting angst by love-struck brothers.

When animals live together in family groups, adult offspring are often limited in their mating options due to their avoidance of inbreeding.

This research looks at what happens when unrelated individuals join the group.

Research associates from the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Dr Martha Nelson-Flower, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, and others studied the behaviour of wild Southern Pied Babblers which live in co-operative family groups of up to 14 individuals.

Nelson-Flower says: “Females tend to have overt conflict, such as eating each other’s eggs and fighting. We think heavier, older subordinate females are better competitors and that’s why they succeed.”

It seems dominant males can’t guard more than one female, “which leaves them open for all sorts of shenanigans among the rest of the group”, Nelson-Flower concludes.