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Photo Source: this "multi-legged bird" circulated on Charl-Stols social media is not P, nor radiation mutation, but the hard-working father of the bird walking his baby.

Where is the baby?

Yes, the pile of jiojio under the wings is theirs.

Photo Source: Nature on PBS this bird is called African pheasant plover (h é ng, scientific name: Actophilornis africanus), also known as African water pheasant, long-legged pheasant plover, it used to look like this:

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons's appearance is not colorful in birds, but a pair of exaggerated feet are very eye-catching, as if to reach out to the cute little claws.

The home of African pheasant plover is, of course, Africa, specifically, sub-Saharan West Africa and eastern Ethiopia. This kind of bird lives in lakes and ponds there.

Long feet are naturally not a decoration. As wading birds that often move on the water, who doesn't have a pair of luxurious "chicken feet"?

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons they use these long feet to walk freely on the water, but instead of floating on the water, they step lightly on the leaves of aquatic plants such as water lilies.

This is just a traditional skill for wading birds. The strangest thing about African pheasant plovers is that they break with the conventional mating system, practise polyandry, and reverse the traditional gender division of labor, with males becoming full-time dads.

More than 90% of birds are monogamous, but most of them are only "monogamous" dewy couples during the breeding season, and females end up raising their children in a widowed fashion, such as mandarin ducks.

The gaudy male mandarin duck is not the responsible father. Photo Source: there are not many Wikipedia monogamous birds, and the wandering albatross is one of them. Husband and wife will stay together for a lifetime to raise offspring together.

Wandering albatross is the model couple. Photo Source: Wikipedia polygamy is not common in birds, but it is not surprising because it is common in familiar mammals. Polyandry such as the African pheasant plover is a rare anomaly in birds and the animal kingdom as a whole.

The male and female African pheasant plover look similar, but the female is significantly larger than the male.

Wikimedia Commons their female-male ratio is also seriously out of balance, the number of males is about twice that of females, according to the traditional mating system, there are bound to be a lot of bachelors.

Every summer, female and male pheasant plover begin to courtship. After mating, the female leaves and continues to look for a new love.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons throughout the breeding season, female birds are busy showing mercy everywhere, it is not a problem to find six or seven partners if the conditions are good. Since the wife is "unfaithful", can the male chase other females, too?

I don't know if the male has this in mind, but the female certainly won't let it, because they have a sense of territorial protection. Females will patrol their own territory to prevent other females from "breaking into the harem to rob relatives."

However, this kind of polyandry is not absolute. In Rain Water's abundant breeding season, there is plenty of food, and almost all female birds have the conditions to "open the harem". But in the dry season without Rain Water, males will become more aggressive, those in a weak position will lose the right to choose a mate, and the pairing pattern of some birds will change from polyandry to monogamy.

When the courtship phase is over, the female is ready to be a mother. From November to February of the following year, females continue to lay eggs in nests prepared by males.

African pheasant eggs | Source: Wikimedia Commons female is only responsible for laying, not raising. After giving birth, she throws it to the male to hatch, and goes on to the next "nest" to lay eggs. Throughout the breeding season, females lay 7-10 litters of eggs, a litter of about three or four.

The question is, how do males know whether the eggs in their nests are born or not?

The answer is, they can't know. Even if they are the children of the old Wang family next door, the male bird will be regarded as his own. Anyway, Lao Wang may be raising his own children next door.

The males are so willing to become full-time dads.

However, it is not so easy to be a nanny.

For eggs to hatch smoothly, they need to be kept at a relatively constant temperature. For African pheasant plovers, the temperature is about 34.3℃. If the temperature is too low, the baby will not develop at all; if it is too high, the baby will die.

Although African pheasant plovers live in warm tropical and subtropical regions, temperatures fluctuate. Fragile eggs need their father to keep warm when it is cold and shade when it is hot.

But the father can't sit and incubate the eggs all the time, because the baby's real mother won't help him find food. So, dad has to go out looking for food from time to time.

Due to frequent entry and exit of the nest, father birds spend an average of 53% of their time hatching eggs during the day, and about 75% of the eggs end up dead, most of which are eaten by monitor lizards and other predators. This may also be one of the reasons why mothers sow seeds everywhere-increasing the probability of conception and the number of eggs laid to make up for the loss.

The next-door relative, the Little African Pheasant plover (Microparra capensis), still practices monogamy. When the couple incubates their eggs together, they can hatch their eggs 82% of the time during the day, increasing the hatching rate.

African Pheasant plover | Picture Source: Wikipedia however, after successful hatching, the survival rate of African pheasant plover babies is still quite high, up to 80%. The father of the pheasant plover is unequivocal in bringing the baby, and he will always keep an eye on the movement around him. Once he finds a potential threat, he will quickly let the baby get under his wings and slip away into a "baby chicken." so there is the opening scene of "chicken feet family photo".

When the weather turns cool, the wings of the pheasant plover father are also a warm harbor for the chicks.

It is not only the father of African pheasant plover who will be caught on both sides like this, but also the father of other species of pheasant, such as Jacana jacana, which is very reliable at critical times.

Babies, "Daddy" has arrived at the station, get off quickly! | | Image source: ABC Landline, so why not a male mother? "

This article is from the official Wechat account: take Science Home (ID:steamforkids), Mirror

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