The article Some Begging is Actually Bragging, written by Douglas W. Mock in Nature, is about a research study done on one hundred forty-three bird species to examine parental responses to chicks’ begging signals. The researchers hypothesized that the parents would feed the offspring that begged the most, but they also had interests to see whether the larger/healthier offspring were given any special attention due to a sense of bragging. Mock described this with two different models: the signal-of-need model which meant that the parents would feed the offspring that needed it most, first, and then there was the signal-of-quality model which explained that the parents would favor and focus their attention on the stronger offspring. During research, environmental features such as the quality and predictability of food supply for each species were taken into consideration. In the end, researchers found that both models were represented. In environments, where food was predictable and essential, parents would feed all offspring equally, and then focus on the weaker ones so as to bring them to size. On the other hand, where there were volatile conditions, parents often preferred the stronger offspring.

For this type of research, the topic was chicks’ begging signals, and the question was to find the different variations of parental responses to the begging. To answer this question, the type of data needed is acts, behavior or events and the data collection method is detached observation. To analyze this data, researchers formed their observations into categorical data; that is, they grouped their findings into the different models of need or quality (begging or bragging). These were then compared to each other based on surrounding environments.

I believe that this research study was well conducted and resulted in some interesting findings. If further research was to be done, I think it would be interesting to find if there were other significant factors that correlated with a parent’s response to the begging or bragging.

Mock, Douglas W. “Animal behaviour: Some begging is actually bragging.” Nature 532.7598 (2016): 180-81. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.