Male-female giving food, shelter and protection to their offspring are parental behavior. No matter how non-social an animal may be, at least twice in life it has to socially interact with co specifies – mating and parental care (pc). It is defined as form a parental behavior that increases the fitness of an offspring. And the parental investment (PI) is a form of parental behavior that increases an individual off-spring, fitness at the cost of the parent’s ability to invast in future off-spring (Trivers, 1972).

Care Before Birth

1. Investment in gamete production
   • Male invests in female gametes
   • Better larger eggs for survival in harsh winter
2. Preparation of Nest Burrows or Territories
   • Broods or eggs kept shore young can be left by parents while foraging eg. Bees make hive and birds make nesting
3. Care of fertilized eggs
   • Incubation by birds and guarding by fish, broad carrying some fish and toads on sites where eggs are laid.

Care After Birth

1. Provisioning or protecting young
   • Feeding by birds, mouth brooding in some fish and lactation in mammals.
2. Care following nutritional independence
   • Support during conflicts in social primates
   • Royal terns feed their chicks even after they have left parents
   • Form and means of parental core worried as species themselves (fish and amyohibians guard their eggs, birds and mammals feed their young ones).
   • Parental cares are provided in two ways – one in contact and other with contact

How common is parental cares and who provides it?

• Arthropods – parental cares not so common, showed more by females than males.
  • Scorpions, spiders carry broad on their back, bees and washes provide shelter and food to their larva.
• Reptiles – parental care is uncommon, whatever little cares is provided, is rendered by females than males e.g. Crocodile females firm nest
• Amphibious – Salamander and frogs/toads exhibits some sorts of parental care
• Fishes – demonstrate parental care like egg guarding, oral brooding, cleaning and funning of eggs. Care by male is more common than by females.
• Birds – most of them show bi-parental care
  • Fathers not only look after babies but provide food to their wife.
• Mammals – 100% care by females (gestation, lactation)
  • Less than 5% show direct male care, mostly in monogamous breeders (e.g. Tamarins, where naked moles, rats)
  • Conceive in form of gamete formation, incubation in birds and nest construction is much time and energy consuming in the early parental care.
  • Most species that provide little to no care as in insects, reptiles and fish produce many young.

Factors Affecting Parental Care

1. Size of the litter of brood
   • if size bigger, parental care decrease
   • low fecundity, more parental care Paradise fish lay 20-300 eggs show parental behavior and Anabas lays 1000-3000 eggs don’t. Elephant give birth to ones baby in few years. Manatee show breeder Ghrizzly bear gives 1-2 cubs, less than 350 gm.
2. Age of off spring
   • Younger babies get more care than older one
   • Younger are week and vulnerable to disease and predator
   • Cannot feed on their own
3. Age of parent
   • Younger parents give less care, have more reproductive cycle. Old parents more care, less babies. Younger are less experienced

Types of Parental Care

1. Neither parent is involved in care of young
   • No mammalian example
2. Both parents involved in care of young
   • Monogamy with bi-parental care
   • No insects reptiles or amphibians reported
   • Few monogamous primate species show this trait e.g. Gibbous tamarinds
3. Mostly females are involved in care of young
   • Wash dung beetle and social bees brood calls and protect their larva
   • Polygamous mammal species in which only females feed and look after off-spring without help of males e.g. Marsupials rodents felids & erangutan
4. Mostly males are involved in care of young
   • E.g. Water bugs, sea horse, tamaris (usually twins)
5. Relatives are involved in care of young /all parenting
   • Eusocial insects sisters care e.g. Bees termites
   • No fishes amphibians or reptiles reported
   • Among birds helpers – at – the – nest e.g. Jay babbler wolves lions elephants, females called aunts

Care & Attachment

• With bias to attachment, rejected by parents
• Natural selection eliminate

Parent-offspring conflict

• Weaning conflict
• Carrying conflict (riding on back)
• Temper tantrums (slaps babies throwing tantrums of Kooler)

Oviparity – A phenomenon where undeveloped eggs are laid

• 90% bony fish external fertilization
• Egg less prone to predators

Ovoviviparity – eggs hatch inside the body of female

• Little internal development
• Babies born after few days (sharks & rays)
• Babies less developed
• Mother helps in feeding e.g. rock fish

Vivipority – Internal fertilization and development

• Direct nutrition from mother
• Fully advance body

After hatching, avian parental care may involve brooding and feeding nestling as well as protecting young from predator e.g. Megapods
Giant penguins of Antarctica take particular care to protect eggs and young from snow and cold by keeping them warm in special abdominal fold.
In most birds bond is established through imprinting during a limited ontogenetic phase (sensitive period). There are two types of young altricial and precocial.

Altricial young are borne helpless, nude, deep, blind and do not move whereas babies of preeacial after borne can see, hear and social interaction begin very early.

Siblicide/Infuncticide

• Some birds, common for siblings (brothers and sisters to compete for food and space vigorously and even kill each other e.g. Black eagle
• Parents are indifferent in this behavior

Infanticide

• Associated with killing of off-spring after birth.
• Regarded as a p art of male reproductive strategy
• Common in langur and lions
• Bisexual group join to from all males group which after an aggressive encounter, new all male group take possession of females and try to kill young babies fed by mother.
• If male kill the baby, female stop lactating and start ovulating. This new males can give his own baby through her.

Canoribalise

• Syrian hamsters cannibalise their young when external circumstances become too unfavorable. Male eat of all kinds (including domestic cat) kill female’s offspring to make her stop nursing and return to fertility so they can fertilize her to have their own babies.

Nest parasitism & Maltreatment

• Cuckoo parents do not perform real brood care, their female’s deposits egg into a suitable nest belonging to another species. Young cuckoos hatch earlier them the off-springs of host, they throw the host young out of the nest, and keep eating from the host adults. This phenomenon is called nest parasitism.
• Maltreatment by mother and aunt has been reported in various animals. The babies can be pulled, pushed, slopped, and carried clumsily. Among Langurs and rhesus inexperienced mothers have been sitting over their babies ignoring their distress cries. Harlow names this “deprivation syndrome” due to the absence of proper parental care.