Throughout the animal kingdom, distinctive behaviour by offspring commonly precedes and
accompanies their provisioning by parents. Here, we assess empirical support for the recent …

Birds have many kinds of internal and external parasites, including viruses, bacteria and
fungi, as well as protozoa, helminths and arthropods. Because parasites have negative …

Parasites and infectious diseases are everywhere and represent some of the most potent
forces shaping the natural world. They affect almost every aspect imaginable in the life of …

When a parasite invades an ant, does the ant behave like other ants? Maybe not-and if it
doesn't, who, if anyone, benefits from the altered behaviors? The parasite? The ant …

Fleas are one of the most interesting and fascinating taxa of ectoparasites. All species in this
relatively small order are obligatory haematophagous (blood-feeding) parasites of higher …

1. We analysed the effect of prey density and size on the foraging performance of great and
blue tit (Parus major L., P. caeruleus L.) parents, and its consequences for the growth and …

Parasites and their infections can adversely effect a host's growth, reproduction and survival.
These effects are often not immediate, but increase with time since infection. A general …

Abstract Models of biparental care predict that parents should compensate incompletely for
any change in their partner's investment. Experimental tests have, however, yielded results …

Paul MacLean was instrumental in establishing the brain regions that mediate the
expression of social behaviors in vertebrates. Pathogens can exploit these central …

In altricial birds post-fledging survival is usually positively related to nestling body mass. A
large number of studies have shown that the latest hatched chick is the more likely to die …