Other Peregrine Projects > USA Peregrines
PA / Pittsburgh - Cathedral of Learning - 2009-22
carly:
Thanks TPC - your replies are always so intelligent and informative. I suppose cannibalism in a species is just not right to me and killing one's offspring as well. I don't imagine any species would evolve if those behaviors were normal.
I remember Doorly! We have a female over here that keeps consuming her eggs, every clutch - year after year. It's at a site with much competition so every year she has to battle off other females but even after she does that and reclutches - she lays the eggs and then immediately consumes them...be interesting to see what happens this year. Although it's strange, I suppose we don't think as much of it because the eggs aren't developed, watching a female kill her own offspring though for me was just too much. I guess that's why I'm not a biologist :-\
The Peregrine Chick:
As a note to all, another chick has hatched and from what I could see of its fuzzy little butt, looks fine. And there is still one more egg under whomever is incubating/brooding - sorry, don't know the markers to tell Hope from Terzo. If I had to guess though, I think it is Hope by the size.
It is raining in Pittsburgh but everyone is well out of the wet.
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: carly on May 01, 2016, 11:10 ---That being said, she killed the newborn right in front of her other offspring - is the other one too young to have that imprinted on him/her? or will he/she grow up thinking it's 'normal' to kill one of my kids to feed to the other?
--- End quote ---
At this stage the chicks' eyes aren't even open so no worries there.
--- Quote from: carly on May 01, 2016, 11:10 ---And Terzo may not be that invested in these kids as they aren't his, we've had similar situations here and the new male doesn't hurt the kids but he doesn't feed them or go out of his way to help other than to feed the female and baby sit when he has to. So if he doesn't step up on the feeding - is she going to kill more kids to feed one? I don't know,l know it's nature but I'm not watching that...too hard for me.
--- End quote ---
The peregrines can't tell if they are "their" chicks or not and it really doesn't play into their maternal/paternal care. Remember, recovery projects relied on the fact that you can add/move chicks from nest to nest and the adults don't change their behaviour toward them. T-Rex when he was less than a year old would feed chicks in a hackbox before they were released and then later after a couple of nests of his own, he took over four eggs belonging to his father. This year it may be that Faith's eggs are not Ty's - the timing is so very tight and she was involved with Hart even after Ty returned. Parenting for peregrines is hardwired and hormonal. Hardwired to respond to cues from mates and chicks. Hormonal to stick to a territory, a mate and eggs/chicks whether they are theirs or not. Does this always apply? It appears to if both adults are at about the same point in the hormonal cycle. However, if a resident male were killed, the interloper male's cycle isn't in sync with a female who is incubating or brooding and male neglect can result or the hardwiring can jumpstart the hormonal or bridge the gap so to speak and the male gets "better" as time goes along.
There are always outliers with any behaviour but they don't define species behaviour, they are just what they are, outliers who's actions (which is different from behaviour) are predictable only to them. Madame was an outlier, she didn't migrate. Why didn't she migrate? Don't know. None of her offspring or her grand-offspring (more than 3/4 of all chicks produced in this province are related to her) have shown any inclination. The only other bird with a (relatively) short migration is not related to her at all. The rest of them migrate pretty much everywhere - east through Florida and west into/through Mexico. Remember Doorly? Know one could figure out why he destroyed the eggs in his first few nests. They were just about to remove him when one of his chicks managed to hatch. After that, all was great. His destruction of the eggs was his outlier action but turns out his parenting behaviour after that first successful hatch was pretty much textbook. So was the destruction really an outlier or did he know something we didn't even in the egg? (As I recall, they never did report if the eggs were viable or not - Hope & Doorly were half-sibs).
carly:
I don't know Bev, she may not be crazy but her years on the bridge may have affected how she raises young.
If you read the paper, this has been observed in other nests but there were extreme conditions. Could the fact that she kept losing mates and had to raise offspring on her own have affected her? Maybe she doesn't trust that Terzo will stick around after all E2 vanished as well.
That being said, she killed the newborn right in front of her other offspring - is the other one too young to have that imprinted on him/her? or will he/she grow up thinking it's 'normal' to kill one of my kids to feed to the other?
It's one thing to leave the weakest to die naturally, seen that several times but to outright kill it the way she did..she just seemed so deliberate...
And Terzo may not be that invested in these kids as they aren't his, we've had similar situations here and the new male doesn't hurt the kids but he doesn't feed them or go out of his way to help other than to feed the female and baby sit when he has to. So if he doesn't step up on the feeding - is she going to kill more kids to feed one? I don't know,l know it's nature but I'm not watching that...too hard for me.
carly:
Some one posted a link to a paper on Kate's blog that discusses
Brood Reduction by Infanticide in Peregrine Falcons, well worth a read and a keeper for future reference.
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic66-2-226.pdf
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