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Nutritional benefits of filial cannibalism in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

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Abstract

Although filial cannibalism (eating one’s own offspring) occurs in numerous species, including several teleost fishes, its adaptive value is still not well understood. One often-discussed explanation is that individuals enhance their mass and body condition by consuming part of their eggs. However, evidence for this assumption is scarce thus far. In this study, male three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a species with paternal care, were allowed to care for a batch of eggs or for an empty nest under food-deprived conditions. All brood-caring males cannibalised at least part of their eggs and thus preserved their initial mass and body condition. Furthermore, mass as well as body condition was significant positively correlated with the number of cannibalised eggs. In contrast, empty-nest males that had no possibility to cannibalise eggs significantly lost mass and body condition. This is, to our knowledge, the first experimentally documented evidence that mass as well as body condition were preserved by filial cannibalism.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the “Bakker” group for the discussion. We thank Jan Hottentot for catching the fish. Meike Hiermes is acknowledged for improving our English. Tatiana Czeschlik, Susan Foster and two anonymous referees provided thoughtful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, An der Immenburg 1, 53121, Bonn, Germany

    Marion Mehlis, Theo C. M. Bakker & Joachim G. Frommen

  2. Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Savoyenstr. 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria

    Joachim G. Frommen

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  1. Marion Mehlis
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  2. Theo C. M. Bakker
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  3. Joachim G. Frommen
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Correspondence to Marion Mehlis.

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Mehlis, M., Bakker, T.C.M. & Frommen, J.G. Nutritional benefits of filial cannibalism in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Naturwissenschaften 96, 399–403 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0485-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0485-6

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