House wrenCOURTESY OF PAULO LLAMBIAS
Animals faced with an infection may choose to focus on producing higher quality current offspring instead of trying for more broods later, according to a new study on house wrens. Published Wednesday (March 28) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study also suggests that, depending on their gender, fledglings may respond differently to the increased resources their parents allocate them. Male hatchlings of mothers with a simulated bacterial infection grew larger while female offspring showed stronger immune responses.
"It's an interesting paper," said Gabriele Sorci of the Université de Bourgogne in France, who studies the evolution of immune regulation in animals, but was not involved in the study. Animals faced with stressful conditions, like an infection, must choose between breeding anyway, which ...
