Maternal care affects chicks’ development differently according to sex in quail

Maternal behavior is known to influence the behavioral development of young. Recently, it was demonstrated that maternal behavior also differed according to sex of chicks and brood sex composition. So, here, we explored if these factors influenced behavioral development of quail chicks when they were brooded, and what characteristics of chicks and foster females could best explain this development. We studied three sets of chick pairs brooded by foster females: unisex male, unisex female, and mixed broods. We found that both emotivity profile and sociality depended on the sex: females were more reactive and less social than males. Females' emotivity profile was correlated with brood composition and foster female activity during maternal care. In males, only sociality was correlated with foster females' scores of aggressive rejection. Our results evidence that male and female chicks respond differentially to maternal behavior. This is discussed in terms of ecological and physiological constraints on development according to sex.

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