ABSTRACT
Broadly defined, parental care refers to any non-genetic contribution by a parent that appears likely to increase the fitness of its offspring (modified from Clutton-Brock 1991). This includes behavioral and physiological traits that occur before, during, and after parition (used to collectively define oviposition and parturition, Smith 1975). Similar to other components of life history, parental care is characterized by tradeoffs, including the classic concept of parent-offspring tradeoffs, as well intra-offspring tradeoffs, which result from different offspring needs requiring conflicting parental behaviors.
