Genetic Parent-Offspring Relationships Predict Sexual Differences in Contributions to Parental Care in the Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Abstract

Negative relationships between the degree of parental investment and the presence of unrelated offspring in the nest due to extra-pair paternity (EPP) or conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) are predicted in monogamous species. This is because investing in unrelated offspring is costly to individual parents. However, such strategies may be adaptive for one social partner. Because parental investment changes in response to that by the social partner, the predicted relationship needs to be assessed empirically in wild animal populations, with consideration for male and female parental care. Furthermore, both EPP and CBP must be considered simultaneously in such a study. In this study, we tackled the issue using the semi-colonial Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus, in which both EPP and CBP were predicted to occur. We tested whether there is a negative relationship between the degree of parental care of both males and females and the presence of EPP or CBP, taking into consideration the parental investment of their social partners, using behavioral observations and parentage analyses based on seven microsatellite loci. The results revealed a moderately high frequency of EPP and CBP within a sparrow colony. A negative relationship between parental care by the social male parent and the presence of EPP was suggested, while this was possibly as a result of the increase in parental investment by their female partner. CBP was also inferred to be linked with male parental investment, while females may have compensated for the cost of CBP in their provisioning efforts by egg rejection. High frequencies of occurrence of both EPP and CBP allowed us to shed light on how parental investment is related to the presence of unrelated young in the complex social system of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.