Abstract
In terms of priority of access to food, brought by the parents, dominance relationships exist between fully precocial sibling Haematopus ostralegus. This non-aggressive social hierarchy, studied on Skokholm Island, Dyfed, determines the partition of food between young, and is usually associated with corresponding weight hierarchy. The occurrence of a viral disease in some broods on Skokholm was used to investigate whether weight hierarchy was responsible for or was a consequence of the social hierarchy. The relative timing of observed transpositions of weight rank and of social rank within broods in which young were sequentially stricken by the disease supports the suggestion that social rank is maintained by a typical behaviour, that it determines feeding success, and hence is responsible for the observed weight differences within oystercatcher broods. -Author
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 365-369 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | British Birds |
Volume | 75 |
Issue number | 8 |
State | Published - 1982 |