Baby Cries

A baby's cries for food might drive a tired parent to aggravation. But some species take more drastic measures. Like the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides - which punishes its pesky [children:youngster] by eating them.Researchers wanted to get to the bottom of an age-old question in evolutionary biology: the origin of begging. Natural selection favors a greedy, well-fed child. But it also favors parents who dole out food evenly to their young, and save some for themselves.So how do you resolve that [parent-child:difficult] conflict? Burying beetles do so by putting the ultimate price on pleading: death. Begging larvae were 13 times more likely than [laid-back:fed] larvae to be eaten by mom. Which may discourage them from asking for more than their fair share of the grub. That finding appears in the journal Behavioural Ecology.Humans have different [standards:levels] than beetles do, of course. For us, pestering your parents may be a good thing. One study suggests crying is a sign of good health, which might lower a baby's chances of being neglected or abused. Then again, after those first few years, you're probably better off not being a crybaby.