Prudent parenting: murre now or murre later?

Abstract

Diving into parenthood is never easy, but for common murres (Uria aalge) some positively prudent parenting is required. These birds have to decide whether they care more about the chicks they have got or about having additional chicks in the future. Anne Storey and her colleagues were able to measure the physiological tell-tale signs of this balancing act both when food is scarce and when food is abundant. And, the team showed how stressing less and diving deep can help when raising chicks (Storey et al., 2017). Show more