Española Island
Aren’t they beautiful? It seems that this male booby who is so proudly showing us his lovely eggs, may be asking us just this question. Indeed, the eggs were bright, white ovals each harboring a tiny chick which promises that the parent’s genetic material will be passed along to the next generation.
The boobies on Española are making one last attempt to breed this year. Since cool, dry season is almost over there is a reduced chance that they will be able to rear this group of young ones. Blue-footed boobies are opportunistic breeders, which means that they procreate whenever that conditions are optimal. Their best chances for successful breeding comes during the cool dry season. At this time of the year cold rich Humboldt Current influences Galapagos.
If times are hard and fishing is poor when the chicks hatch, competition will be reduced by the system of “opportunistic sibling murder”. Because it hatches a few days earlier, the first born chick is larger and stronger than its nest mate is. The parents feed the larger chick first. This system ensures that at least one chick has a good chance of surviving a period of shortage, and optimizes the reproductive capacity of the blue-foot in an unpredictable environment.
But if we wish to be anthropomorphic, we could say that this male booby is proud of the two eggs, and believes that the fishing is still good enough to rear them both.
Aren’t they beautiful? It seems that this male booby who is so proudly showing us his lovely eggs, may be asking us just this question. Indeed, the eggs were bright, white ovals each harboring a tiny chick which promises that the parent’s genetic material will be passed along to the next generation.
The boobies on Española are making one last attempt to breed this year. Since cool, dry season is almost over there is a reduced chance that they will be able to rear this group of young ones. Blue-footed boobies are opportunistic breeders, which means that they procreate whenever that conditions are optimal. Their best chances for successful breeding comes during the cool dry season. At this time of the year cold rich Humboldt Current influences Galapagos.
If times are hard and fishing is poor when the chicks hatch, competition will be reduced by the system of “opportunistic sibling murder”. Because it hatches a few days earlier, the first born chick is larger and stronger than its nest mate is. The parents feed the larger chick first. This system ensures that at least one chick has a good chance of surviving a period of shortage, and optimizes the reproductive capacity of the blue-foot in an unpredictable environment.
But if we wish to be anthropomorphic, we could say that this male booby is proud of the two eggs, and believes that the fishing is still good enough to rear them both.
