Size, safety and parenting all have an impact on how quickly a species of bird matures, according to new research from the University of Sheffield that could help scientists to understand and predict how animals will respond to climate breakdown and the destruction of habitats.
Size, safety and parenting all have an impact on how quickly a species of bird matures, according to new research from the University of Sheffield that could help scientists to understand and predict how animals will respond to climate breakdown and the destruction of habitats.
The team of scientists has studied thousands of species of birds to understand why there is so much diversity in the length of time they take to grow from a fertilised egg to an independent adult.
The research, published in Nature Communications, is the first study to consider the importance of lifestyle and environmental factors alongside evolutionary history and body size to explain the variation.
All organisms face a trade-off between reproducing and surviving and they solve this problem in different ways. The team found that bird species with a ‘live fast die young’ strategy develop quicker, allowing them to maximise the number of offspring they can produce in the short time they have available.
Findings showed that birds that breed and live in safer environments with fewer predators typically took longer to develop, possibly because they can afford to spend longer in a vulnerable state.
Read more at University Of Sheffield
Image by Yan Cabrera from Pixabay
