Using a Game Theoretical Approach for Experimental Simulation of Brood Reduction - Conflict and Co-Operation, Effect on Brood Size with Limited Resources

A number of hypothesis have been presented to explain the complex interactions occurring during brood reduction, but few simulation models successfully combines hypothesis together necessary to describe evolutionary stable strategies. In our solution we present a simple experimental simulation for brood reduction for which each sibling act as an autonomous agent that has the ability to initiate actions for cooperation and competition against others chicks within the same brood. Agents have a limited set of actions that can be activated during the onset of some environmental condition. Parameters for food distribution are determined on a basis of a former known theory for maximizing inclusive fitness. During the experimental simulations we have studied size and fitness measures with varying degree of asynchrony and prey density for siblings within the artificial brood. Results from the experimental simulation shows interesting similarities with brood reduction in a real world setting. Agents within the artificial brood respond with competitiveness whenever resources are limited. Simulated later hatching also showed a lower rate of survival because of natural size hierarchy to co-siblings within the simulated brood.