Black Bass Parental Care - Where Behaviour and Physiology Meet

Queen's University Biology Station has been an epicenter for research on the parental care of centrarchid fish.  Black bass have served as a useful model for examining the integration of animal behaviour and physiology in wild free-ranging fish during parental care.  Here we summarize our work on this topic and address a variety of questions including: What are the physiological and energetic costs of parental care for adults?  And how do those costs vary relative to nest predator burden?  Why do parental males reduce feeding during parental care?  What are the factors that contribute to nest success?  How do reproductive hormones and stress hormones interact during parental care?  How does stress before or during parental care contribute to parental care success?