| Abstrakt: |
Ferrying, the behaviour in which waterbirds transport their offspring on their backs while in the water, is a captivating behaviour that wildlife photographers and filmmakers frequently highlight in calendars, wildlife documentaries, magazines and nature photography books. In the avian research sphere, however, only a handful of studies have investigated this behaviour, leaving much remaining to be understood about its evolution. One pattern that appears to emerge at a cursory glance is that the species that ferry tend to also be diving species. We sought to build a dataset of species that ferry and compare its occurrence to five ecological factors: diving, coloniality, territoriality, parental care type, and clutch size. Finally, we found that ferrying has originated at least four times within Anseriformes and has also been lost in two separate lineages of waterfowl. We suggest that a variety of avian life history factors may have influenced the evolution of ferrying behaviour and should be the focus of future research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
