Increase of Parental Effort with Brood Size in a Nidifugous Bird

Abstract Positive correlations of brood size with some parental activities [vigilance (in females), approaching young (in males and females), and attack (in males)] and a negative correlation of female feeding time with brood size were found in a sample of 23 semicaptive Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) families. Detailed examination of these correlations suggests that some components of parental care in geese represent "shared parental investment" (Lazarus and Inglis 1978, 1986). The benefits of parental care are divided among the offspring, so that in precocial birds, as in altricial birds, clutch size may be adapted to selection pressures that act after the young hatch.