Question

How might parental care also be costly to a care-giving parent? How do costs vary for males versus females?

Answer 1

Parental investment theory in 1972 by trivers. This theory proposed that the investment on offspring increases offspring’s chances of the survival. Therefore the reproductive success directly proportional to the parental investment on their offspring. The parental investment depends on the sexes. According to sex there is a considerable difference in the parental investment.

In some of the species females invest more than male and in other species vice versa. The difference in the parental investment among male and female depends on the sexual selection and the operational sex ratios.

Parental care is the  the time and energy resources which benefits the offspring. If both male and female do parental care then it is biparental care. If it is done only by female then it is called as exclusive maternal care and in the case of male it is exclusive paternal care.

There are 2 types of parental care are present.

1. Depreciable parental care: The benefits of the parental care decrease for the individual offspring as the brood or the litter size increases. Eg: Provision of food
2. The offspring individual benefits do not decrease with the increase in brood litter size.
3. Eg: parental vigilance to detects potential predators.