BioConcepts

parental careConservatio propagationem (lat.); Brutpflege (ger.)

• Behaviour that is directed at increasing an organisms offsprings survival chances, e.g. by providing food or protection from harmful environmental influence; see also: neomelie, prehatching parental care. (HWB)
  category parental care

  c. -350 (BC)

  [Καὶ τῶν ἄλλων δέ, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, σχεδὸν οἱ πλεῖστοι τοῦτο δρῶσι καὶ θρέψαντες οὐδεμίαν ἐπιμέλειαν ποιοῦνται τὸ λοιπόν, πλὴν κορώνης· αὕτη δ’ ἐπί τινα χρόνον ἐπιμελεῖται· καὶ γὰρ ἤδη πετομένων σιτίζει παραπετομένη. […] Τῶν δὲ ποταμίων ὁ γλάνις ὁ ἄρρην περὶ τὰ τέκνα ποιεῖται ἐπιμέλειαν πολλήν. [most other birds do the same: after raising them [scil. their young] they take no more interest in them afterwards—with the exception of the crow: this bird looks after her chicks for quite a while, and even after they can fly she flies alongside and feeds them. […] Among the river fishes the male glanis takes great care of the young.]

  Aristotle (c. 350 BC). Historia animalium 563b9-14; 621a21-22 [transl. by A.L. Peck 1970; D.M. Balme 1991].

  1713

  To this natural Care of Parent-Animals to their Young, we may add returns made by the Young of some towards the Old ones.

  Derham, W. (1713). Physico-theology: 207.

  1749

  Conservatio propagationem

  Linné, C. von (1749). Oeconomia naturae (Amoenitates academicae, vol. 2, 1-58): 36 (§14).

  1757

  I have ever thought it a most remarkahle instance of the divine wisdom, that whereas in all animals, whose individuals rise little above the rest of their species, knowledge is instinctive; in man, whose individuals are so widely different, it is acquired by education […]. The same parental care extends to every part of the animal creation.

  H.I.L. (1757). [Letter to the editor]. The Universal Magazine 20, 202-205: 204.

  1763

  The Ephemeron, or Fly that lives but Part of a Day. […] the Female being impregnated, drops her Eggs upon the Water. These sink to the bottom, where they are hatched hatched by the heat os the Sun into little Worms, which make themselves Cases in the Clay, and feed on the lame, or on what the Waters afford, without any need of Parental Care.

  Wesley, J. (1763). A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, vol. 1: 197-8.

  1784

  Das reine Wasser, und jenes, welches mit Salz, oder Salpetertheilen vermischt ist, scheint zu gewissen Zeiten den Bienen eben so unentbehrlich, als das Honig und der Blumenstaub. Sie brauchen beide Wässer zur Brutpflege und den Wachsbau.

  Pösel, J. (1784). Gründlich- und vollständiger Unterricht sowohl für die Wald- als Garten-Bienenzucht, in den Churpfalz-Bayerischen Ländern: 72 (§75).

  1803

  [It is not to be supposed, that the parental care of government, would be more particularly extended to one part of this great empire, than to another

  Preston, W. (1803). Essay on the natural advantages of Ireland, the manufactures to which they are adapted and the best means of improving those manufactures. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 9, 159-428: 420.]

  1824

  Die des Geschlechts unfähigen Drohnen sind nur zur Brutpflege bestimmt; sie verrichten das Geschäft des Brütens.

  Hoffmann, E.F. (1824). Zur näheren Kenntniß der Bienen. Archiv für die gesammte Naturlehre 3, 397-403: 401.

  1832

  the trees of the forest […] are provided for by the parental care of nature; their seeds are light, easily dislodged from the tree, in some instances provided with wings to bear them away on the winds of heaven, where they can be arrested in their flight, borne down to the earth, and beaten in to the ground by the summer shower.

  Anonymus (1832). [Rev. Browne, D.J. (1831). American Forest Trees. Sylva Americana]. The North American Review 35, 399-433: 405.

  1842

  Brutpflege in den niederen Thierclassen

  Steenstrup, J.J.S. (1842). Ueber den Generationswechsel oder die Fortpflanzung und Entwicklung durch abwechselnde Generationen: eine eigenthümliche Form der Brutpflege in den niederen Thierclassen.

  1863

  Außerdem ist es das gegenseitige Schutz- und Hülfebedürfnis der Gatten [der Säugetiere], welches diese auch über die Zeit der Brutpflege hinaus zusammenhält.

  Wundt, W. (1863). Vorlesungen über die Menschen- und Thierseele, 2 vols.: II, 189.

  1868

  Captain Atwood [wrote] “[…] It is the opinion of many of our whalemen that they are not a distinct species, but are the young right whale that lost its mother while very young, and has grown up without parental care, which has caused a slight modification […]”

  Cope, E.D. (1868). On Agaphelus, a genus of toothless Cetacea. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 20, 221-227: 223.

  2011

  Die Brutpflege ist ein Verhalten, das auf die Erhöhung der Wahrscheinlichkeit des Überlebens der Nachkommen eines Organismus gerichtet ist, z.B. durch die Versorgung mit Nahrung oder den Schutz vor schädlichen Umwelteinflüssen.

  Toepfer, G. (2011). Historisches Wörterbuch der Biologie. Geschichte und Theorie der biologischen Grundbegriffe, vol. 1: 344.