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69 results for “cooperative breeders”
Data from: Matrix models of hierarchical demography: linking group- and population-level dynamics in cooperative breeders
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Data from: Group-size dependent punishment of idle subordinates in a cooperative breeder where helpers pay to stay
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Data from: Sex-biased dispersal at different geographical scales in a cooperative breeder from fragmented rainforest
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Data from: Oxidative status and social dominance in a wild cooperative breeder
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Habitat fragmentation shapes natal dispersal and sociality in an Afrotropical cooperative breeder
<p>It remains poorly understood how effects of anthropogenic activity, such as large-scale habitat fragmentation, impact sociality in animals. In cooperatively breeding species, groups are mostly formed through delayed offspring dispersal, and habitat fragmentation can affect this process in two opposite directions. Increased habitat isolation may increase dispersal costs, promoting delayed dispersal. Alternatively, reduced patch size and quality may decrease benefits of philopatry, promoting dispersal. Here, we test both predictions in a cooperatively breeding bird (placid greenbul, Phyllastrephus placidus) from an Afrotropical cloud forest archipelago. Males born in fragmented forest dispersed about one year earlier than those born in continuous forest. Contrary to females, males also started to reproduce earlier and mostly settled within their natal patch. Females only rarely delayed their dispersal for more than one year, both in fragmented and continuous forests. Our results suggest that early male dispersal and reproduction is jointly driven by a decrease in the value of the natal territory and an increase in local breeding opportunities in fragmented forest. While plasticity in dispersal strategies of cooperative breeders in response to anthropogenic change is believed to optimize reproduction-survival trade-offs, to what extent it shapes the ability of species to respond to rapid environmental change remains to be studied.</p>
Data from: Pregnancy is detected via odour in a wild cooperative breeder
Among mammals, scent has long been known to encode oestrus; however, in many species, detecting pregnancy may also be important in terms of both competition and mate-choice. Here, we show, through odour presentation experiments, that pregnancy is discernible via scent by both sexes in the cooperatively breeding banded mongoose, Mungos mungo. Males spent more time investigating and were more likely to scent mark the odours of non-pregnant females, compared to pregnant females. Females showed increased levels of scent marking when odours were of the same reproductive state as themselves. These results present the first direct demonstration that pregnancy is detectable via scent in wild cooperative breeders. Detecting pregnancy may be particularly important in cooperative breeders as, in addition to the competition between males for receptive mates, there is also intense competition between females for access to alloparental care. Consequently, dominant females benefit from targeting reproductive suppression towards subordinates that represent direct threats, such as pregnant females.
Data from: Group size adjustment to ecological demand in a cooperative breeder
Environmental factors can determine which group size will maximise the fitness of group members. This is particularly important in cooperative breeders, where group members often serve different purposes. Experimental studies are yet lacking to check whether ecologically mediated need for help will change the propensity of dominant group members to accept immigrants. Here we manipulated the perceived risk of predation for dominant breeders of the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher to test their response to unrelated and previously unknown immigrants. Potential immigrants were more readily accepted if groups were exposed to fish predators or egg predators than to herbivorous fish or control situations lacking predation risk. Our data are consistent with both risk dilution and helping effects. Egg predators were presented before spawning, which might suggest that the fish adjust acceptance rates also to a potential future threat. Dominant group members of N. pulcher apparently consider both present and future need of help based on ecological demand. This suggests that acceptance of immigrants and more generally, tolerance of group members on demand could be a widespread response to ecological conditions in cooperatively breeding animals.
Data from: Individual dispersal decisions in a cooperative breeder: ecological constraints, the benefits of philopatry, and the social queue for dominance
1. Delayed dispersal is a key step in the evolution of familial animal societies and cooperative breeding. However, no consensus has been reached on the ecological and social circumstances driving delayed dispersal. 2. Here we test predictions from the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses as well as the recently-proposed dual benefits hypothesis to better understand the evolution of group-living and cooperative breeding. Furthermore, we consider how individual social circumstances within groups affect dispersal decisions. 3. We examine 11 years of life-history information on a wild population of cooperatively breeding southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). We investigate the effects of ecological conditions, natal-group membership and individual social context on male and female dispersal delays, disperser survival and acquisition of dominance. 4. Female dispersal decisions are generally unconstrained by ecological or social circumstances. In contrast, males disperse in response to relaxed ecological constraints, decreases in nepotistic tolerance, or when low social rank in the queue for dominance decreases their likelihood of gaining a dominant breeding position. Early dispersal by end-of-queue males often leads to a head-of-queue subordinate position in a non-natal group, thereby increasing access to dominant breeding positions. However, males and females remaining in natal groups gain benefits of philopatry via increased survival and, for head-of-queue males, very high likelihood of acquisition of a breeding position. 5. Overall, predictions from the dual benefits hypothesis best describe these results, while some predictions from each of the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses were supported. The benefits of living and working together (collective action benefits) in large stable groups are of central importance in shaping dispersal delays in southern pied babbler societies. In addition, position in the subordinate social queue for dominance is key in determining access to reproduction, particularly for males. This research highlights the importance of considering the costs and benefits of individual social circumstances in dispersal decisions and illustrates how the dual benefits hypothesis offers new perspectives in understanding delayed dispersal.
Data from: Context-dependent strategies of food allocation among offspring in a facultative cooperative breeder
Natural selection should favor adoption of parental strategies that maximize fitness when allocating investment among offspring. In birds, begging displays often convey information of nestling need and quality, allowing parents to make adaptive food allocation decisions. We investigated how adults utilized cues likely to represent nestling competitive ability (begging position) and need (begging intensity), and a cue independent of nestling control (nestling sex) to distribute food among nestlings in a facultative cooperative breeder, the black-throated tit (Aegithalos concinnus). We found that parents reduced their efforts when helped, suggesting that parents of helped broods would have the potential to satisfy nestling needs more than unhelped parents. This suggestion was supported by the fact that nestling mass increased faster in helped than in unhelped nests. We found no effect of nestling sex on food allocation, but, as predicted, we found that adults responded differently to begging signals in relation to the presence of helpers and brood size. First, helped parents were more responsive to nestling begging intensity than parents without helpers. Second, female parents and helpers had a stronger preference for nestling begging position in large than in small broods. Third, the preference for nestling begging position was greater for unhelped than for helped female parents. These results provide evidence that carers adjust their preference for different offspring begging signals based on availability of food resources.
Data from: Reproductive conflict resolution in cooperative breeders
Female infanticide is common in animal societies where groups comprise multiple co-breeding females. To reduce the risk that their offspring are killed, mothers can synchronize breeding and pool offspring, making it hard for females to avoid killing their own young. However, female reproductive conflict does not invariably result in reproductive synchrony, and we lack a general hypothesis explaining the variation in conflict resolution strategies seen across species. Here, we investigate the fitness consequences of birth timing relative to other females and the prevalence of birth synchrony in cooperatively breeding Kalahari meerkats (Suricata suricatta). We show that, although there would be substantial benefits to females in synchronizing births and reducing their risk of infanticide, birth synchrony is rare. Since precise breeding synchrony has evolved in a related species with similar infanticidal female reproductive conflict, its absence in meerkats requires an evolutionary explanation. We therefore explore the costs and benefits of synchronizing breeding in two theoretical models, each of which contrasts synchrony with an alternative reproductive strategy: (i) breeding opportunistically and accepting fitness losses to infanticide or (ii) suppressing the reproduction of others to prevent infanticide. Our models show that the costs of synchrony constrain its development if subordinates breed infrequently, and that selection instead favours the suppression of subordinate reproduction by the dominant and opportunistic reproduction by subordinates. Together, our results suggest that the resolution of reproductive conflict in animal societies is shaped by differential breeding propensities among female group members, leading to divergent conflict resolution strategies even in closely-related species.
Data from: The oxidative costs of reproduction are group-size dependent in a wild cooperative breeder
Life-history theory assumes that reproduction entails a cost, and research on cooperatively breeding societies suggests that the cooperative sharing of workloads can reduce this cost. However, the physiological mechanisms that underpin both the costs of reproduction and the benefits of cooperation remain poorly understood. It has been hypothesised that reproductive costs may arise in part from oxidative stress, as reproductive investment may elevate exposure to reactive oxygen species, compromising survival and future reproduction and accelerating senescence. However, experimental evidence of oxidative costs of reproduction in the wild remains scarce. Here, we use a clutch-removal experiment to investigate the oxidative costs of reproduction in a wild cooperatively breeding bird, the white-browed sparrow weaver, Plocepasser mahali. Our results reveal costs of reproduction that are dependent on group size: relative to individuals in groups whose eggs were experimentally removed, individuals in groups that raised offspring experienced an associated cost (elevated oxidative damage and reduced body mass), but only if they were in small groups containing fewer or no helpers. Furthermore, during nestling provisioning, individuals that provisioned at higher rates showed greater within-individual declines in body mass and antioxidant protection. Our results provide rare experimental evidence that reproduction can negatively impact both oxidative status and body mass in the wild, and suggest that these costs can be mitigated in cooperative societies by the presence of additional helpers. These findings have implications for our understanding of the energetic and oxidative costs of reproduction, and the benefits of cooperation in animal societies.
Data from: Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder
Quantifying consistent differences in behaviour among individuals is vital to understanding the ecological and evolutionary significance of animal personality. To quantify personality, the phenotypic variation of a behavioural trait is partitioned to assess how it varies among individuals, which is also known as repeatability. If pedigree data are available, the phenotypic variation can then be further partitioned to estimate the additive genetic variance and heritability. Assessing the repeatability and heritability of personality traits therefore allows for a better understanding of what natural selection can act upon, enabling evolution. In a natural population of facultative cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island, a lack of breeding vacancies forces individuals into different life-history strategies, and these differences in reproductive state could generate behavioural differences among individuals in the population. We used this population to estimate the repeatability of 4 behavioural traits (novel environment exploration, novel object exploration, obstinacy/struggle rate, and escape response), and narrow-sense heritability (of behavior, h2B; behavior minus observer variance; and personality), and evolvability, of the repeatable behavioural traits. We also tested for an among-individual correlation between the repeatable traits. We found that, compared to estimates in other study species, the exploratory behaviours were moderately repeatable (0.23–0.37), there was a positive among-individual correlation (0.51) between novel environment and novel object exploration, and that novel environment exploration was moderately heritable (0.17; h2B was low as it includes observer variance). This study further clarifies the additive genetic variance available for selection to act upon in this cooperatively breeding bird.
Data from: Socially informed dispersal in a territorial cooperative breeder
1. Dispersal is a key process governing the dynamics of socially and spatially structured populations, and involves three distinct stages: emigration, transience, and settlement. At each stage, individuals have to make movement decisions, which are influenced by social, environmental, and individual factors. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of the drivers that influence such decisions is still lacking, particularly for the transient stage during which free-living individuals are inherently difficult to follow. 2. Social circumstances such as the likelihood of encountering conspecifics can be expected to strongly affects decision making during dispersal, particularly in territorial species where encounters with resident conspecifics are antagonistic. Here we analyzed the movement trajectories of 47 dispersing coalitions of Kalahari meerkats (Suricata suricatta) through a landscape occupied by constantly monitored resident groups, while simultaneously taking into account environmental and individual characteristics. 3. We used GPS locations collected on resident groups to create a geo-referenced social landscape representing the likelihood of encountering resident groups. We used a step-selection function to infer the effect of social, environmental and individual covariates on habitat selection during dispersal. Lastly, we created a temporal mismatch between the social landscape and the dispersal event of interest to identify the temporal scale at which dispersers perceive the social landscape. 4. Including information about the social landscape considerably improved our representation of the dispersal trajectory, compared to analyses that only accounted for environmental variables. The latter were only marginally selected or avoided by dispersers. Before leaving their natal territory, dispersers selected areas frequently used by their natal group. In contrast, after leaving their natal territory, they selectively used areas where they were less likely to encounter unrelated groups. This pattern was particularly marked in larger dispersing coalitions and when unrelated males were part of the dispersing coalition. 5. Our results suggest that, in socially and spatially structured species, dispersers gather and process social information during dispersal, and that reducing risk of aggression from unrelated resident groups outweighs benefits derived from conspecific attraction. Finally, our work underlines the intimate link between the social structure of a population and dispersal, which affect each other reciprocally.
Data from: Early and adult social environments shape sex-specific actuarial senescence patterns in a cooperative breeder
Sociality modulates life history traits through changes in resource allocation to fitness-related traits. However, how social factors at different stages of the life cycle modulate senescence remains poorly understood. To address this question, we assessed the influence of social environment in both early life and adulthood on actuarial senescence in the Alpine marmot, a cooperative breeder. The influence of helpers on actuarial senescence strongly differed depending on when help was provided, and on the sex of the dominant. Being helped when adult slowed down senescence in both sexes. However, the effect of the presence of helpers the year of birth of a dominant was sex-specific. Among dominants helped during adulthood, females born in the presence of helpers senesced slower, whereas males senesced faster. Among dominants without helpers during adulthood, females with helpers at birth senesced faster. Social environment modulates senescence, but acts differently between sexes and life stages.
Data from: Pregnancy is detected via odour in a wild cooperative breeder
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Data from: Task-dependent workload adjustment of female breeders in a cooperatively breeding fish
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Data from: Group size adjustment to ecological demand in a cooperative breeder
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Data from: Reproductive conflict resolution in cooperative breeders
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Data from: Early and adult social environments shape sex-specific actuarial senescence patterns in a cooperative breeder
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Data from: Sex differences in the drivers of reproductive skew in a cooperative breeder
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