Comments | wtf_nature: Gouldian Finches Control Their Chick's Gender (Subconsciously?)

cyaneus in wtf_nature

Gouldian Finches Control Their Chick's Gender (Subconsciously?)

Mar 21, 2009 04:21

From the Discover Magazine Blog:The Gouldian finch female has a neat trick for maximizing her offspring’s chance of survival: If she mates with a male who is a poor match for her genetically, she increases the proportion of male chicks in the resulting brood. In a new study, researchers say they’ve found unprecedented evidence that these birds can ( Read more... )

bird, sex, finch, australia

Comments 17

nightmer March 22 2009, 18:19:44 UTC

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I still don't get why a higher proportion of weaker males is a benefit, though. Anyone know?

orwellian_trash March 22 2009, 18:29:09 UTC

They all have to compete and the weaker ones fail to successfully woo the ladies and therefore fail to pass on their genetic material. They don't go home empty handed, though: they all win a Crackerjack Pencil and a Darwin Award.

nightmer March 22 2009, 21:04:53 UTC

So since any female who survives is pretty much guaranteed to find a mate, the mother is putting her offspring at a disadvantage since she knows they're weaker? This makes sense, but I've never heard of an adaptation that selects against the spreading of its genetic material. Huh.

cyaneus March 22 2009, 18:50:14 UTC

The weaker males are more likely to survive than the even more fragile females.

Thread 5

genmaicha March 22 2009, 19:30:39 UTC

Gouldian finches are so weird.

cyaneus March 22 2009, 19:44:24 UTC

I've always liked how they look like they're wearing lipstick.

Also, I love that icon; is it from luxicons?

genmaicha March 22 2009, 19:50:43 UTC

Their nestlings' gape markings are awesome, too. :)

Thank you! Yes, it is, and actually I am the creator of it/owner of that icon account; I just had an LJ username change. :)

cyaneus March 22 2009, 20:08:30 UTC

Oh! Those are the little guys that have reflector strips in their mouth, aren't they? Did anyone post about that here? It's pretty WTF.

And I didn't even recognize you! Nice to see you here.

Thread 5

winderpin March 22 2009, 20:31:33 UTC

Every time I run into an article about these birds I find out something weird about them. Aren't they the ones that can't eat white millet because it's poisonous to them?

mushroom_maiden March 23 2009, 12:00:15 UTC

hey cooooool

roachpatrol March 23 2009, 14:13:44 UTC

It's interesting that they admit that they have no idea how the birds chose their eggs' sex, but are apparently positive they do it subconsciously, 'of course'. Why 'of course'? Are they then saying that they know the birds make fully conscious decisions and egg-sexing is one of them, or are they just assuming that birds are like humans and have little to no conscious control of their organs? It seems like a weird thing for her to say.

slaneyder March 23 2009, 16:19:34 UTC

Agreed.

cyaneus March 24 2009, 05:11:57 UTC

Yeah, I thought that too, hence why I added the question mark. The stress hormone theory mentioned seemed like a good one, but really, how could they know?

hollowman April 2 2009, 20:09:42 UTC

I think they are simply assuming the finch does not have a complex enough brain to consciously work out what sex ratio would be ideal and then decide to make more males than females. Which strikes me as a perfectly sensible thing to say. None of which implies the birds do make any conscious decisions - only that even if they do, this is not one of them.

Thread 5