Last week I visited Kabini with my friend. While going to Kabini &
returning back, we used to stop at the lake on the way near HD.Kote, which
usually have plenty of bird life, like jacanas, coots, ducks, egrets, herons,
storks and ibis. Also, sometimes, we could see marsh harriers and kites.
This time, while coming back from Kabini, we stopped for some time and
were watching for the bird life. We noticed a coot with 2 chicks foraging near
the banks in between the grass shoots. It looked like the adult coot was
feeding the chicks. The chicks were following the adult wherever it goes. At
one point, the adult coot did some body language by dipping the head under
water, and left the chicks. May be it went in search of food. The chicks
obediently stayed back obeying its parent. The adult came back and again fed
the chicks.
After sometime, we observed that the adult coot started attacking one
of the chicks, repeatedly. It was biting the chick's head, and chasing it away.
It was strange to watch that. Though the adult was attacking the chick, the
chick repeatedly was behind the adult.
May be this is some kind of child favoritism, we thought. Some more
references I could see in Wikipedia are here:
//
Coots can be very brutal to their
own young under pressure such as the lack of food. They will bite young that
are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging and starves
to death. If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is
killed.[6]
//
//
At least some coots have
difficulty feeding a large family of hatchlings on the tiny shrimp and insects
that they collect. So after about three days they start attacking their own
chicks when they beg for food. After a short while, these attacks concentrate
on the weaker chicks, who eventually give up begging and die. The coot may
eventually raise only two or three out of nine hatchlings.
//
Never knew of this kind of behaviour...another day's learning! We were watching a Coot family at a pond in Sathanur (on the same road...perhaps it was th same pond!) and they were repeatedly being attacked by a pair of Brahminy Kites, one of which ultimately made off with one chick. But I have never seen the parents turning on their own young before. Sort of goes against our intuitive feeling! Thanks for the good documentation and observation. -Deepa.
ReplyDeleteNicely written Vinod, with apt and beautiful photographs. Didn't know about this behaviour in Coots. There are so many strange ways in nature, which we don't know. Nice to have someone witness, capture such moments, write and share. While it was sad to see this phenomenon, it does exist, as can be seen from your photos and write up. Thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteNice documentation and observation Vinod.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thanks for sharing about this behaviour. Enjoyed reading about it.
ReplyDeleteWell documented Vinodh.. "Favoritism in parenting" leading to "Survival of the fittest" - its just the way nature is designed.
ReplyDelete