| 释义 |
siblicide, n. Ornith.|ˈsɪblɪsaɪd|
[f. sibling n. + -icide: see -cide 2.]
The action by a young bird of killing a sibling or fellow nestling.
1982Natural Hist. Jan. 18/2 Evolutionary biologists..tend to discuss such phenomena as the siblicide of boobies in the language of adaptation. 1984Sunday Times 16 Sept. 80/7 Young egrets had a habit of killing off their nest-mates—‘siblicide’ was the apparent cause of death in many brood reductions. 1985Behavioral Ecol. & Sociobiol. xviii. 416 Siblicide may be an evolutionary response on the part of the dominant chick to ‘anticipated’ food shortages that might occur later in development. 1988Birder's World July/Aug. 19/1 If both hatch, the first (and larger) nestling evicts the smaller in a form of ‘siblicide’, leaving a single chick. |