Caring for offspring may accelerate ageing - scientists

It's about balancing the care of offspring with your own survival.

Details

The study was conducted on Japanese quail. Scientists artificially divided the birds into two groups: one group laid larger eggs, the other smaller ones.

Egg size reflects the amount of resources a female invests in her offspring. Chicks from larger eggs have a better chance of survival, but this requires a greater expenditure of energy.

The experiment went on for several generations. As a result, it was found that females that laid larger eggs aged faster and lived about 20 per cent less.

On average, such birds lived about 595 days, while quail with smaller offspring costs - about 770 days.

Scientists attribute this to the fact that the body's resources are limited. If more energy is spent on reproduction, less is left for cell repair, immune defence and body maintenance.

Why it matters

The results confirm a fundamental biological principle: the body cannot maximise its investment in both offspring and its own longevity at the same time.

This helps to better understand

• how survival strategies are formed in different species
• why there is a link between reproduction and aging
• what limitations are inherent in the biology of living organisms

Background

The idea of a "trade-off" between reproduction and longevity has long been discussed in biology, but has been difficult to test experimentally. This is one of the first studies to show such a link in vertebrates through artificial selection.

Source

The study was carried out by scientists at the University of Exeter on Japanese quail. The work was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2026).