I wouldn’t use “superstimulus” to describe a bunny being merely cuter than a baby, but I would for a cuckoo too big for the nest, yet still being fed by the host. This is the result of an optimization process, though not an artificial one.
It’s in cuckoo interests to be attractive to host birds; it’s not obviously serving non-domesticated animals to be cute. It hasn’t historically stopped us from eating them at anywhere near the rates that would put that kind of pressure on.
it’s not obviously serving non-domesticated animals to be cute. It hasn’t historically stopped us from eating them at anywhere near the rates that would put that kind of pressure on.
If so, then it also doesn’t significantly harm humans to see animals as cute (since it doesn’t make us give up a source of food). If this is so, then a much weaker justification might be accepted for the source of cuteness, perhaps as weak as “side effect of phenotypically unrelated evolution”.
Can’t find the citation now, but at least some of the reason that host birds feed baby cuckoos is that parent cuckoos monitor how well their offspring are doing and will destroy the nests of birds that fail to feed the cuckoo chick. So there’s selective pressure to respond to the cuckoo chick’s stimulus without it necessarily being a superstimulus.
I saw that hypothesis when I was looking for the picture, but it doesn’t apply to the particular picture, where the cuckoo is the only chick in the nest, in fact, too big for even the mother to perch on the rim. That was way beyond the pictures I’d seen before, where the cuckoo is merely bigger than the mother. Actually, the picture doesn’t make sense me: how can the mother provide enough food for this gigantic chick, much bigger than her whole brood?
That seems like pretty strong evidence for the superstimulus hypothesis. Do they also feed chicks of their own species in other nests? Is it just philanderers? otherwise, it sounds like pretty poor fitness.
I wouldn’t use “superstimulus” to describe a bunny being merely cuter than a baby, but I would for a cuckoo too big for the nest, yet still being fed by the host. This is the result of an optimization process, though not an artificial one.
It’s in cuckoo interests to be attractive to host birds; it’s not obviously serving non-domesticated animals to be cute. It hasn’t historically stopped us from eating them at anywhere near the rates that would put that kind of pressure on.
How does the same cuckoo manage to be attractive to so many host birds?
If so, then it also doesn’t significantly harm humans to see animals as cute (since it doesn’t make us give up a source of food). If this is so, then a much weaker justification might be accepted for the source of cuteness, perhaps as weak as “side effect of phenotypically unrelated evolution”.
Can’t find the citation now, but at least some of the reason that host birds feed baby cuckoos is that parent cuckoos monitor how well their offspring are doing and will destroy the nests of birds that fail to feed the cuckoo chick. So there’s selective pressure to respond to the cuckoo chick’s stimulus without it necessarily being a superstimulus.
There isn’t strong evidence of this.
~Bird Dork.
Good to know. Wikipedia calls one particular paper “rather convincing”—is it on crack in this instance?
I saw that hypothesis when I was looking for the picture, but it doesn’t apply to the particular picture, where the cuckoo is the only chick in the nest, in fact, too big for even the mother to perch on the rim. That was way beyond the pictures I’d seen before, where the cuckoo is merely bigger than the mother. Actually, the picture doesn’t make sense me: how can the mother provide enough food for this gigantic chick, much bigger than her whole brood?
Maybe that’s not the mother. Some birds will feed cuckoos in nests not their own.
That’s pretty crazy! I’d like a cite.
That seems like pretty strong evidence for the superstimulus hypothesis. Do they also feed chicks of their own species in other nests? Is it just philanderers? otherwise, it sounds like pretty poor fitness.
I just recall reading it somewhere, sorry. It could easily be wrong. (I did find something talking about a goose feeding a bunch of fish, though.)