Parent–offspring conflict theory predicts that offspring seek to prolong the parental care period, while parents strive to shorten it as much as possible. Transition to the crèche phase in penguins involves changes in the dynamic of parental investment in chicks, and thus may be modulated by interests that benefit parent or offspring. We explored parent–offspring interactions in the Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica) to understand the influence such interactions would have on transition to crèche phase. We studied the effect of hatching date, nestling age, brood size, and nest location on parent–offspring interactions and the length of the guard phase. All behavioral variables related to nestling demands for parental investment increased as well as parental aggression towards their chicks, with increased nestling age. Brood size showed significant effects on both nestling and parental behavior. Hatching date was negatively correlated with the age at crèche. Consequently, the decision to leave the chicks unguarded seemed to be more based on the condition of adults rather than of the chicks. Given the short time available for breeding in Antarctica and that penguins are long-lived birds with several opportunities to breed, there may be conflicting selective factors between investment in feeding chicks versus extending the period of resource acquisition and storage prior to moult.

亲子冲突理论预测，后代寻求延长父母的照顾期，而父母则尽可能缩短。企鹅过渡到托儿所阶段涉及父母对小鸡的投资动态的变化，因此可能会受到有利于父母或后代的利益的调节。我们探索了帽带企鹅（Pygoscelis antarctica) 了解此类互动对过渡到托儿所阶段的影响。我们研究了孵化日期、雏鸟年龄、育雏大小和巢穴位置对亲代-后代相互作用和保护期长度的影响。随着雏鸟年龄的增加，与雏鸟对父母投资的需求有关的所有行为变量以及父母对雏鸟的攻击性都增加了。育雏大小对雏鸟和父母的行为都有显着影响。孵化日期与托儿所的年龄呈负相关。因此，让雏鸡无人看管的决定似乎更多地基于成体而不是雏鸡的状况。鉴于南极洲的繁殖时间很短，而且企鹅是长寿的鸟类，有多种繁殖机会，