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Unit 18: Biology Part 1 Page 33 of 60
For example, if a goose egg rolls when they believe they are going
out of the nest, the goose will roll to be fed.
it back in.
Generally, animals have instincts
because they help them survive.
However there can be problems
with innate behaviors. In the case
of geese mentioned above, the
goose will roll anything that looks
like an egg into the nest. There
have been examples of geese
rolling golf balls into their nests. Parental care varies greatly
Although this may seem silly, the between species. Parents usually
reality is that spending time and care for the young until they
energy in this activity takes away fledge, or are about to fledge,
from time and energy that should meaning that they learn how to fly,
be spent caring for the goose’s but there are exceptions. The
actual eggs. offspring of the murrelet follow
their parents out to sea
Parents incubate the eggs by immediately after they are born to
sitting on nests. In 95% of bird avoid being eaten by predators on
species, males and females are land. Some birds, including the
monogamous. This means that magapodes, do not care for their
the male and female bird remain young at all. The young birds dig
together for the breeding season, their own way out of the nest and
and sometimes even year after begin to care for themselves right
year, until one mate dies. In such away. On the other extreme is the
species, the male and female share Great Frigatebird. Like many
responsibility for incubating the seabirds, this species cares for
young. In polygamous species, their young extensively. Young
where birds have multiple mating frigatebirds take six months to
partners during the breeding fledge. After this, the parent
season, one parent does all the continues to feed their offspring for
incubation.
another 14 months. No other
Baby birds exhibit innate behavior species cares for young for this
that helps them survive. Babies length of time.
will naturally open their mouths
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