Parental investment or 'Parental-care' basically means the time and energy parents allocate to producing and treating their offspring. In ecology and in animal behaviour a major question is why and how much should a parent invest in its offspring. Another question relating to parental investment is which of the parents should be the one taking care of the offspring.
Robert Trivers' theory of parental investment predicts that the sex making the largest investment in lactation, nurturing and protecting offspring will be more discriminating in mating and that the sex that invests less in offspring will compete for access to the higher investing sex.
See also
References
- Bateman, A. J. 1948. Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity 2: 349-368.
- Trivers, R.L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man, 1871-1971 (pp. 136-179). Chicago, IL: Aldine. ISBN 0-43-562157-2
Further reading
- Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2000). Optimizing offspring: The quality-quantity tradeoff in agropastoral Kipsigis. Evolution and Human Behavior 21(6):390-410. Full text (Click on "Publications" and then title)
- Hagen, E. H., Barrett, H. C. and Price, M. E. (in press). Do human parents face a quantity-quality tradeoff? Evidence from a Shuar community. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Full text
- Quinlan, R., (2003). Father-Absence, Parental Care & Female Reproductive Development. Evolution and Human Behavior. 24(6): 376-390. Full text