As one of the most common birds in our lives, sparrows have become accustomed to living with people, and the bold ones often appear in front of and behind people's houses, and even when someone approaches them, they will not fly away immediately.
In the harsh environment of nature, weak sparrows want to survive, and monogamy becomes their only option.
01
Sparrows live in the wild, so the natural environment has a great impact on them, the first of which is the problem of hatching young eggs.
To hatch a sparrow's eggs, it is necessary to rely on the body temperature of the parents, and when one party is hatching the cubs, the other party has to take on the task of foraging outside.
Because hatching pups is something that both male and female sparrows can do, they often exchange jobs, that is, take turns hatching and taking turns foraging, so as to ensure that the sparrow eggs will not be cold, and at the same time, their rations can be guaranteed.
When the little sparrow is hatched, the burden on the parents is even greater.
For newly hatched sparrows, protein is a nutrient they desperately need, so parents must go out to catch bugs or other foods to make sure the sparrows are well nourished.
Sparrow pups are the same as human pups and need to eat once every two hours when they are born.
If the parents do not provide the rations in time, the consequences are unimaginable, and once it is more than 4 hours, these newborn little sparrows will be starved to death.
The number of eggs laid by sparrows is about 4 to 6 per time, which means that they can hatch 4 to 6 cubs at the same time.
So sparrow parents have to run around the house and in the wild every day, constantly transporting food, so as to ensure that the little sparrow survives.
This is an extremely difficult task that requires the full devotion of both parents of the sparrow, and in such a tiring situation, the sparrow naturally has no time to do anything else, which makes monogamy inevitable in the world of the sparrow.
These little sparrows can't go out independently to forage for food until 15 days later, so in the period after they are born, their parents become a guarantee of their survival.
But New York researchers were surprised to find that even after such hard work in raising their cubs, some male sparrows still have two wives at the same time.
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Most of these polygamous sparrows are sparrows living in cities, and this is the only species in the sparrow family that can adapt to urban life.
Unlike wild sparrows, which prey on insects, sparrows living in cities like to look for food in trash cans, and experts have found that these sparrows tend to be smarter.
When male sparrows have two wives at the same time, in order to better take care of both families, they will generally put the two homes together, and the distance is not too far.
This allows even the busiest time of their cubs to be born, and they can cope with it easily.
Of course, there is another advantage of doing so, that is, both wives are within their control, which can effectively prevent them from cheating.
Although marrying two wives looks bright and beautiful on the surface, behind this, it is the responsibility and hardship that everyone can't see.
Sparrows build their nests, which usually require the cooperation of sparrow couples; in addition, the male sparrow must also participate with his wife in the process of hatching the cubs.
In addition to this, egg incubation is also their most important task, and the two wives mean that the number of eggs they hatch will also double, which will naturally be more difficult.
However, not all male sparrows will be conscientious, and they sometimes shift the responsibility of childcare to their wives, and they find various reasons to be lazy.
Naturally, female sparrows do not give up, on the one hand, they fulfill their responsibilities as mothers, on the other hand, they will continue to expand their offspring genes.
In other words, in the face of irresponsible husbands, they will also empathize with each other, and leave the offspring born with other sparrows to their husbands and themselves to raise.
But even if the male sparrow wants to make himself more wives, in the face of the pressure of life, many times they have to make monogamous choices.
Because in this way, the burden on them will be lightened, so that they will not run between the two families every day and exhaust themselves.
summary
New York experts have found that the sparrow in polygamy often installs two of their homes at opposite ends of a telephone pole. I have to say that this is indeed a good way, as long as it stops in the middle, it can take care of each other at the same time.
The monogamy of the sparrow is actually the result of natural selection, and this system has a certain advantage that allows the sparrow to better reproduce the next generation.
In contrast, polygamy is more contagious, although to some extent it is the process of adapting to the city, but there is no guarantee of the survival rate of the next generation, and naturally it cannot become mainstream.
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