Question

Which of the following is associated with long-term parental care?

a. few offspring

b. many offspring

c. semelparity

d. fecundity

Short answer

The Correct Answer is Option (a) Few offspring

Step-by-step solution

Introduction

• Parental care is a behavioral and evolutionary strategy used by some animals that involve parents making an investment in their offspring's evolutionary fitness.
• Parental care patterns may be seen all over the animal kingdom, and they are extremely diverse.

Reasons for Incorrect Options

• Parental care is not possible for species with a large number of offspring since they lack the energy to care for them.
• Fecundity refers to an individual's reproductive capabilities within a population. In other words, fecundity refers to the number of offspring that might be produced if an individual has as many offspring as feasible while also continuing the reproductive cycle as soon as possible after the offspring are born. Fecundity in animals is inversely proportional to the amount of parental care given to each offspring.
• The life cycles of many plant and animal species are marked by mortality after the first reproduction. This is referred to as semelparity.

Reason for Correct option

Organisms that have a small number of offspring invest a lot of energy in each one and often provide a lot of parental care.

As a result, option is the proper response (a)