Introducing Fernando

A name has been given to the new tiercel who is now calling San Jose city hall home. Fernando has been performing all of his partnerly duties for Clara. He brings her food twice a day and has performed all of the courtship rituals and has even begun to figure out his share of the incubating. After checking out the eggs several times trying to figure out what to do with them, he has finally succeeded in sitting on them. Even though it was only for a very short time it is still a big step.

Now here was my initial reaction to this:
Clara is currently sitting on EC's eggs and Fernando gets no genetic or fitness benefit for raising EC's young. But, after thinking about it, perhaps what matters most to peregrines is the territory and potential for future offspring. But still, why isn't it instinctively ingrained in their genetics to not care for young that they know isn't theirs? And then I started thinking, if the chances of them abandoning their own young accidentally was too high, than evolution would have caused them develop into birds that care for any eggs and any babies inside their nesting area. The fitness benefit for their own young is increased when their parents are guaranteed to care for them. In the end, Fernando helping to raise EC's babies benefit him in the long run.

Being an Ecology and Evolution major involves trying to answer one big circle of questions all of the time. It's fun trying to figure things out though.

Sorry for my giant rant!

Thanks for reading if you did!