Why Old Dads Are Bad for Albatrosses

If birds fretted about their biological clocks like humans do, it would be the dads of some species doing the worrying, not the moms. When male albatrosses have chicks later in life, those chicks grow up to fare worse. It's because albatrosses of both sexes are such good parents to begin with. Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) share parenting duties "quite equitably," explains Rémi Fay, a graduate student in biology at France's CNRS. The giant seabirds mate for life. Every other year, couples lay a single egg and incubate it. After a chick hatches, the mom and dad share responsibility for keeping it alive. But males are much bigger and heavier, Fay says, which means the parents' contributions aren't exactly the same. Fathers can patrol the best fishing spots at sea, outcompeting any female birds that are nearby, and can carry more food back to the nest. This means the father's ...