Comments on: Parasitising Grandma – why alien eggs can be a sign of helpful families

By: Simon K

Simon K — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:23:10 +0000

Wait, hang on, they nest “on an airport runway”. Am I the only person who thinks this might actually be a bigger problem than the brood parisitism, for both the ducks and the planes?

By: Naga

Naga — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:45:47 +0000

Whoa, cool. So when my parents sent me to stay at Grandma’s house for a few days, I was being a brood parasite?

Awesome!

By: AG

AG — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:53:50 +0000

This make people rethink about many past discovery and theory. Exploitation vs altruism?

By: Ian Govey

Ian Govey — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:09:07 +0000

Interesting to know how many grandparents there are. An older study i know of on known-aged red-billed gulls in NZ showed relatively few individuals maintained the population from one generation to the next.

Only 17% of males and 24% of females produced young which went on to breed in their turn.

By: Blackbird

Blackbird — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:51:50 +0000

This is a great post, I am glad you picked this story up. I wonder how much longer eiderducks they live after they reproductive period, are they in the process of evolving something similar to human menopause?

By: Walter S. Andriuzzi

Walter S. Andriuzzi — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:00:48 +0000

This reminds me of the story on the “solar” salamanders, or the cyanide production in Lotus corniculatus and Zygaenidae. All these studies focus on rather ordinary and (presumedly!) well-known animals, and all three made surprising discoveries. To me it’s a sign that, while efforts on discovering new taxa in still largely unexplored environments are sure thrilling, it’s not a bad idea also to give a more detailed look at our backyards
Btw, I was on an island quite full of eider ducks recently, the females were incredibly tame, they wouldn’t move even as I walked towards them, I almost (accidentally) stepped on one of them more than once