Find research datasets worth reusing

Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.

157

datasets available to search

ShareScore release 0.9.0

Dataset results

157 results for “breeders”

Learn how ShareScore rates datasets ↗

dryad36/100

Costly mating delays drive female ornamentation in a capital breeder full dataset

The data is related to experiments on glow-worms (L. noctiluca), where we studied the effect of stressing and mating delays on signalling effort.We address how fecundity might be traded off with mate attraction and other aspects of reproduction in females remains poorly understood. We investigated these allocation trade-offs using the common glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca), a lampyrid beetle in which flightless, sedentary females only use resources gathered during the larval stage to attract flying males by glowing. While sexual signalling was not found to have a significant fecundity cost, a delay in successfully attracting a mate greatly increased the risk of reproductive failure, with fecundity losses being more severe in small females. These findings are among the first to show that failure to quickly attract a mate can decrease female fecundity. The results also show how the length of delay before mating can drive the evolution of female sexual ornamentation.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Stress axis programming generates long-term effects on cognitive abilities in a cooperative breeder

The ability to flexibly adjust behaviour to social and non-social challenges is important for successfully navigating variable environments. Social competence, i.e., adaptive behavioural flexibility in the social domain, allows individuals to optimize their expression of social behaviour. Behavioural flexibility outside the social domain aids in coping with ecological challenges. However, it is unknown if social and non-social behavioural flexibility share common underlying cognitive mechanisms. Support for such shared mechanism would be provided if the same neural mechanisms in the brain affected social and non-social behavioural flexibility similarly. We used individuals of the cooperatively-breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher that had undergone early-life programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis by exposure to (i) cortisol, (ii) the glucocorticoid-receptor antagonist mifepristone or (iii) control treatments, and where effects of stress-axis programming on social flexibility occurred. One year after the treatments, adults learned a colour-discrimination task, and subsequently, a reversal-learning task testing for behavioural flexibility. Early-life mifepristone treatment only marginally affected learning performance, whereas cortisol treatment significantly reduced behavioural flexibility. Thus, early-life cortisol treatment reduced both social and non-social behavioural flexibility, suggesting a shared cognitive basis of behavioural flexibility. Further our findings imply that early-life stress programming affects the ability of organisms to flexibly cope with environmental stressors.

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Helper plasticity in response to breeder turnover in gray wolves

Nonbreeding helpers can greatly improve the survival of young and reproductive fitness of breeders in many cooperatively breeding species. Breeder turnover, in turn, can have profound effects on dispersal decisions made by helpers. Despite its importance in explaining group size and predicting population demography of cooperative breeders, our current understanding of how individual traits influence animal behavior after disruptions to social structure is incomplete particularly for terrestrial mammals. We used 12 years of genetic sampling and group pedigrees of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Idaho, USA, to ask questions about how breeder turnover affected the apparent decisions by mature helpers (>2-year-old) to stay or leave a group over a one-year time interval. We found that helpers showed plasticity in their responses to breeder turnover. Most notably, helpers varied by sex and appeared to base dispersal decisions on the sex of the breeder that was lost as well. Male and female helpers stayed in a group slightly more often when there was breeder turnover of the same sex, although males that stayed were often recent adoptees in the group. Males, however, appeared to remain in a group less often when there was breeding female turnover likely because such vacancies were typically filled by related females from the males' natal group (i.e., inbreeding avoidance). We show that helpers exploit instability in the breeding pair to secure future breeding opportunities for themselves. The confluence of breeder turnover, helper sex, and dispersal and breeding strategies merge to influence group composition in gray wolves.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

dryad36/100

Does sentinel presence improve foraging success? A study in a cooperative breeder

In various cooperative breeding species, a group member often sentinels from a prominent position that enables early detection of approaching predators and then utters alarm calls to which the other group members react immediately. We tested in the cooperatively breeding Arabian babbler (Argya squamiceps), whether in the presence of a sentinel the other group members forage for longer or more effectively. In natural observations, at different distances from the shelter and in different group sizes, we found no effect of sentinel presence on foraging time. Likewise, in a giving-up density (GUD) experiment with artificial food patches containing mealworms at each of three different distances from the shelter, fewer mealworms were consumed further from the shelter, irrespective of whether a sentinel was present or not during foraging. While foragers react to a sentinel's alarm calls when a predator approaches, our findings indicate that Arabian babbler foragers do not improve their foraging efficiency due to the sentinel's presence. Combined with previous studies on the Arabian babbler, these findings reinforce the conclusion that in this species the sentinel is 'selfish' and benefits from early detection of predators. These results contrast with those from other cooperative breeders in which sentinels utter calming calls and foraging efficiency increases when sentinels are present. We, therefore, suggest that similar sentinel behaviour may serve different sentinel systems and functions in different cooperative breeders.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

dryad36/100

Experimental vacancies do not induce settlement despite habitat saturation in a cooperative breeder

The paradox of cooperative breeding whereby individuals assist others instead of reproducing independently is generally explained through ecological constraints, but experimental evidence is scant. Here we performed the crucial test of the role of habitat saturation through experimental creation of vacancies and find that despite abundant presence of potential mates, subordinates are reluctant to disperse into suitable vacant habitat where conspecifics are absent. We argue that sudden disappearance of multiple group members might indicate a heightened risk of predation. Thereby the results of this study are consistent with the 'perceptual trap' hypothesis: the avoidance of habitats because cues do not accurately reflect their quality. Interestingly, this hypothesis can also explain previous findings, which were widely interpreted as evidence for ecological constraints as a driver of cooperative breeding. Our results can have considerable implications for conservation as it means that opportunities for colonization might go unexploited.

opencc-zeroFeb 2020View details →

dryad36/100

Data for: Kinship, dear enemies, and costly combat: The effects of relatedness on territorial overlap and aggression in a cooperative breeder

Many species maintain territories, but the degree of overlap between territories and the level of aggression displayed in territorial conflicts can vary widely, even within species. Greater territorial overlap may occur when neighbouring territory holders are close relatives. Animals may also differentiate neighbours from strangers, with more-familiar neighbours eliciting less-aggressive responses during territorial conflicts (the "dear enemy" effect). However, research is lacking on how both kinship and overlap affect territorial conflicts, especially in group-living species. Here we investigate kinship, territorial overlap, and territorial conflict in a habituated wild population of group-living cooperatively breeding birds, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor. We find that close kin neighbours are beneficial. Territories overlap more when neighbouring groups are close kin, and these larger overlaps with kin confer larger territories (an effect not seen for overlaps with unrelated groups). Overall, territorial conflict is costly, causing significant decreases in body mass, but conflicts with kin are shorter than those conducted with non-kin. Conflicts with more-familiar unrelated neighbours are also shorter, indicating these neighbours are "dear enemies". However, kinship modulates the "dear enemy" effect; even when kin are encountered less frequently, kin elicit less-aggressive responses, similar to the "dear enemy" effect. Kin selection appears to be a main influence on territorial behaviour in this species. Groups derive kin-selected benefits from decreased conflicts and maintain larger territories when overlapping with kin, though not when overlapping with non-kin. More generally, it is possible that kinship extends the "dear enemy" effect in animal societies.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Lifetime wolf breeder data

Data for male and females wolves where we knew both the start and end of their breeding tenure.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2023View details →

dryad36/100