Received 1 November 1982, accepted 21 March 1983. Although size difference is deter- mined in part by the sex and hatching sequence of the nestling, the role of offspring sex in fratricide is not clear. We suggest that these differences are proximate mechanisms that account for ob- served differences in the frequency of fratricide in eagles.
Significantly greater (P < 0.0001) within-clutch volume differences (an indicator of disparity in hatching weight) and greater time between hatching (mode of 3 versus 2 days) are found in eagles in which fratricide is obligate (three species) than in those in which fratricide is facultative (eight species). These factors determine the relative differences in locomotor development and coordination and thus the ability of the first-hatched nestling to control access to and monopolize parent-provided resources. Size differences are modified further by feeding rates of young by adults. Several factors, including time between hatch- ing, differences in hatching weights, and possibly the sex of the nestling in conjunction with its hatching sequence. It understands fantasy to include speculative fiction which seeks to portray pre-disaster life as similar to the implied young adult reader's, as well as works of high fantasy in which the disaster has made Earth into a kind of secondary world (see Sands 1998, p.232), and focuses on novels in which the disaster has clearly been caused by humans in some way.įratricide in eagles (Accipitridae: Accipitrinae) is either obligate (second hatched nestling (C2) always dies) or facultative (C2 occasionally dies) and appears to be a function of relative size differences between siblings. This paper broadens this definition to include texts in which the disaster actually happens but in which the focus is on life after the disaster.
Stephens considers that: 'The main distinguishing feature of the genre is that its texts are set in a fantasy future which exists some time after the world we know has been destroyed by a cataclysmic disaster, usually caused by human actions' (1992, p.126). Taking as its central question: 'What narrative functions does the disaster in young adult postdisaster fiction have?', this paper explores how the genre is utilised to make comment on a range of issues, and argues that there are three connected sub-genres within young adult post-disaster fiction, with the disaster having a different function in each, and the nature of the comments made by each of these sub-genres tending also to be different.
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