Family success prompts tit divorces
By Susan Milius
Yes, it sounds backwards, but it’s what the study found: Pairs of long-tailed tits are more likely to break up and find new mates if they succeed in raising young than if the nest fails.
“To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of successful breeders being more likely to divorce than unsuccessful breeders,” report Ben J. Hatchwell of the University of Sheffield in England and his colleagues in the April 22 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.