Many families have youngsters who squabble, but for Canada jays, the fighting is intense and eventually leads to exile for the weaker siblings, with the right to stay on home territory going to the victorious “family bully.”
Many families have youngsters who squabble, but for Canada jays, the fighting is intense and eventually leads to exile for the weaker siblings, with the right to stay on home territory going to the victorious “family bully.”
Now University of Guelph researchers in the College of Biological Science have calculated the costs of that early-life sibling rivalry – as well as the benefits to the dominant family bully.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Canada jays, which live mostly in Canada’s boreal forest, are one of only two bird species in the world in which the siblings fight for dominance and the right to remain in the territory.
Read more at University of Guelph
Photo Credit: Avia5 via Pixabay
