DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6q573n630
title: Data from: Inability of recognizing offspring underlies parental errors in the selection of offspring

description: Inclusive fitness theory is an important theoretical framework in
 demonstrating the evolution of social behaviors. However, in the scenario
 of caring for offspring, it is difficult for the inclusive fitness theory
 to demonstrate the errors parents made in offspring selection, either
 rejecting their own offspring (type I error) or accepting the offspring of
 others (type II error). To address why parents make errors in caring for
 offspring and the relationship between making errors and parental ability
 of offspring recognition, we designed a series of experiments in the
 azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus). By manipulating the nest spatial
 position or cross-fostering chicks, we examined parental care strategies
 for the manipulated offspring and tested whether offspring age and
 parent-offspring familiarity affected the occurrence of both errors. In
 the nest resettlement experiment, the probability of type I error
 significantly increased with nest-moving distances while decreased with
 offspring ages. In the cross-fostering experiments, the probability of
 type II error significantly decreased with the age difference between
 cross-fostered chicks. In the experiments of reselection between familiar
 offspring and unfamiliar unrelated chicks or between unfamiliar offspring
 and familiar cross-fostered chicks, the probability of both errors was
 closely related to the time when parents were deprived the association
 with their offspring. Given offspring phenotypic traits become
 individualized and fixed with their growth, it imposes an aging effect on
 parental ability of offspring recognition. Parental errors in offspring
 selection depend largely on the age of offspring when the environmental or
 offspring signals are manipulated.
description: Data used in the experiment were collected in the field. 
description: # Inability of recognizing offspring underlies parental errors in the
 selection of offspring --- This dataset contains six excel files that
 include all data needed in the manuscript "Inability of recognizing
 offspring underlies parental errors in the selection of offspring".
 Missing data had been caused because relevant individuals were not
 captured in this study. ## Description of the data and file structure The
 first excel file is 1-nest resettlement experiment. In this file, the unit
 of measurement for offspring age is "days", that for nesting
 density is "nests/ha", and for nest-moving distance is
 "m". The second excel file is 2-cross-fostering experiment
 between two nests at the egg stage. The third excel file is
 3-cross-fostering experiment between two nests at the chick stage. In this
 file, the unit of measurement for "age of parents'
 offspring" and "age difference between fostered chicks" are
 both "days". The fourth excel file is 4-cross-fostering
 experiment between eggs and chicks_at egg stage. In this file, the unit of
 measurement for "age of offspring" is "days". The
 fifth excel file is 5-cross-fostering experiment between eggs and
 chicks_at chick stage. The sixth excel file is 6-nest duplication
 experiment.In this file, the unit of measurement for "age of
 parents' offspring" is "days". ## Code/Software
 Software used to analyze the acoustic features of nestling begging call in
 the azure-winged magpie was MatLab. Script is included in Script.txt file.