Stressed seabird parents think only of themselves

(University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna) To see how bird families interact with each other being stressed, researchers from Vetmeduni Vienna and University of Gdansk studied parent-offspring interactions in a long-lived seabird, the little auk (Alle alle). They increased their 'stress levels,' with the result that stressed offspringintensified begging and received more food. When parent birds were stressed, they however reduced offspring feeding their single chicks to search for food for th