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Begging

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Bleating; Offspring solicitation behavior

Definition

Begging is a form of communication in which organisms solicit resources provided by other organisms. It almost always occurs when dependent young solicit resources from their parents and often involves multiple signals designed to induce parental provisioning.

Introduction

Begging is a familiar behavior in birds and mammals. Begging in nestling birds has a striking visual component: nestlings stretch their necks upward towards the parent and widen their gapes (Jacob et al. 2011). Equally conspicuous are the acoustic signals of begging birds, which make high-frequency and repetitive sounds that subside once they are fed (Budden and Wright 2001). Placental mammals employ analogous “bleating” calls during the period of lactation, and invertebrates such as burying beetles may wave their legs and touch parents in order to induce provisioning (Parker and Mock 1997; Smiseth and Parker 2008). Begging is present in amphibians: in...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas-Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Callen M. Inman

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  1. Callen M. Inman
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Correspondence to Callen M. Inman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

    Peggy Mason

  2. Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States of America

    Yuri Sugano

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Inman, C.M. (2020). Begging. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1372-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1372-1

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