Experimental evidence of a link between breeding conditions and the decision to breed or to help in a colonial cooperative bird

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 271, Issue 1541, 2004, Pages 827-832

  Covas, Rita ^a,b   Doutrelant, Claire ^a,c   Du Plessis, Morné A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

^b UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

^c Laboratoire d'Ecologie Generale   (France)

Author keywords

Age of first reproduction; Cooperative breeding; Deferred reproduction; Delayed dispersal; Food supplementation; Habitat quality

Indexed keywords

AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCE; COOPERATIVE BREEDING; FOOD SUPPLEMENTATION; HABITAT QUALITY; REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY;

AGE; ANIMAL EXPERIMENT; ARTICLE; BIRD; BREEDING; CONTROLLED STUDY; COOPERATION; DECISION MAKING; DIET SUPPLEMENTATION; FEMALE; FOOD; HABITAT QUALITY; MALE; NONHUMAN; PHILETAIRUS SOCIUS; PRIORITY JOURNAL; REPRODUCTION; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

ANIMALIA; AVES; PHILETAIRUS SOCIUS; PHILETARIUS SOCIUS; PLOCEINAE;

EID: 1842855356     PISSN: 09628452     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2652     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Arnold, K. E. & Owens, I. P. F. 1998 Cooperative breeding in birds: a comparative test of the life-history hypothesis. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 265, 739-745. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.1998. 0355.)
2. Arnold, K. E. & Owens, I. P. F. 1999 Cooperative breeding in birds: the role of ecology. Behav. Ecol. 10, 465-471.
3. Baglione, V., Canestrari, D. & Marcos, J. M. 2002a Cooperatively breeding groups of the carrion crow Corvus corone corone in Northern Spain. Auk 119, 790-799.
4. Baglione, V., Canestrari, D., Marcos, J. M., Griesser, M. & Ekman, J. 2002b History, environment and social behaviour: experimentally induced cooperative breeding in the carrion crow. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 269, 1247-1251. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2002.2016.)
5. Brown, J. L. 1987 Helping and communal breeding in birds. Princeton University Press.
6. Charlesworth, B. 1994 Evolution in age-structured populations. Cambridge University Press.
7. Clutton-Brock, T. H. 1988 Reproductive success. University of Chicago Press.
8. Cockburn, A. 2003 Cooperative breeding in Oscine passerines: does sociality inhibit speciation? Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 270, 2207-2214. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2003.2503.)
9. Covas, R. 2002 Life history evolution and cooperative breeding in the sociable weaver. PhD thesis, Percy FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town.
10. Covas, R., Brown, C. R., Anderson, M. D. & Brown, M. B. 2002 Stabilizing selection on body mass in the sociable weaver Philetairus socius. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 269, 1905-1909. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2002.2106.)
11. Doutrelant, C., Covas, R., Caizergues, A. & du Plessis, M. A. 2004 Unexpected sex ratio adjustment in a colonial cooperative bird: pairs with helpers produce more of the helping sex whereas pairs without helpers do not. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. (In the press.)
12. du Plessis, M. A. 1992 Obligate cavity-roosting as a constraint on dispersal of green (red-billed) wood hoopoes: consequences for philopatry and the likelihood of inbreeding. Oecologia 90, 205-211.
13. Ekman, J., Bylin, A. & Tegelström, H. 1999 Increased lifetime reproductive success for Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus) males with delayed dispersal. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266, 911-915. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.1999.0723.)
14. Ekman, J., Bylin, A. & Tegelström, H. 2000 Parental nepotism enhances survival of retained offspring in the Siberian jay. Behav. Ecol. 11, 416-420.
15. Ekman, J., Eggers, S., Griesser, M. & Tegelström, H. 2001 Queuing for preferred territories: delayed dispersal of Siberian jays. J. Anim. Ecol. 70, 317-324.
16. Emlen, S. T. 1982 The evolution of helping. I. An ecological constraints model. Am. Nat. 119, 29-39.
17. Emlen, S. T. 1990 White-fronted bee-eaters: helping in a colonially nesting species. In Cooperative breeding in birds (ed. P. B. Stacey & W. D. Koenig). Cambridge University Press.
18. Emlen, S. T. 1991 The evolution of cooperative breeding in birds and mammals. In Behavioural ecology: an evolutionary approach (ed. N. B. Davies), pp. 301-337. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
19. Faul, F. & Erdfeler, E. 1992 G power: a priori, post-hoc, and compromise power analyses for MS-DOS (computer program). Department of Psychology, Bonn University.
20. Frederiksen, M. & Bregnballe, T. 2001 Conspecific reproductive success affects age of recruitment in a great cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, colony. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 268, 1519-1526. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2001.1701.)
21. Ghalambor, C. K. & Martin, T. E. 2001 Fecundity-survival trade-offs and parental risk-taking in birds. Science 292, 494-497.
22. Goodman, D. 1974 Natural selection and cost ceiling on reproductive effort. Am. Nat. 108, 247-268.
23. Green, D. J. 2001 The influence of age on reproductive performance in the brown thornbill. J. Avian Biol. 32, 6-14.
24. Green, D. J. & Cockburn, A. 2001 Post-fledging care, philopatry and recruitment in brown thornbills. J. Anim. Ecol. 70, 505-514.
25. Koenig, W. D. & Pitelka, F. A. 1981 Ecological factors and kin selection in the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. In Natural selection and social behaviour (ed. D. W. Tinkle), pp. 261-280. New York: Chiron Press.
26. Koenig, W. D., Pitelka, F. A., Carmen, W. J., Mumme, R. L. & Stanback, M. T. 1992 The evolution of delayed dispersal in co-operative breeders. Q. Rev. Biol. 67, 111-150.
27. Kokko, H. & Lundberg, A. 2001 Dispersal, migration and offspring retention in saturated habitats. Am. Nat. 157, 188-202.
28. Komdeur, J., Huffstadt, A., Prast, W., Castle, G., Mileto, R. & Wattel, J. 1995 Transfer experiment of Seychelles warblers to new islands: changes in dispersal and helping behaviour. Anim. Behav. 49, 695-708.
29. Lack, D. 1968 Ecological adaptations for breeding in birds. London: Methuen.
30. Langen, T. A. 2000 Prolonged offspring dependence and cooperative breeding in birds. Behav. Ecol. 11, 367-377.
31. MacColl, A. D. C. & Hatchwell, B. J. 2002 Temporal variation in fitness payoffs promotes cooperative breeding in long-tailed tits Aegithalus caudatus. Am. Nat. 160, 186-194.
32. Macedo, R. H. & Bianchi, C. A. 1997 Communal breeding in the tropical Guira cuckoos Guira guira: sociality in the absence of a saturated habitat. J. Avian Biol. 28, 207-215.
33. Maclean, G. L. 1973a The sociable weaver. 1. Description, distribution, dispersion and populations. Ostrich 44, 176-190.
34. Maclean, G. L. 1973b The sociable weaver. 2. Nest architecture and social organisation. Ostrich 44, 191-218.
35. Maclean, G. L. 1973c The sociable weaver. 5. Food, feeding and general behaviour. Ostrich 44, 254-261.
36. Magrath, R. D. 2001 Group breeding dramatically increases reproductive success of yearling but not older female scrubwrens: a model for cooperatively breeding birds? J. Anim. Ecol. 70, 370-385.
37. Martin, T. E. 2002 A new view for avian life history evolution tested on an incubation paradox. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 269, 309-316. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2001.1879.)
38. Mendelsohn, J. M. & Anderson, M. D. 1997 Sociable weaver Philetairus socius. In The atlas of Southern African birds (ed. J. A. Harrison, D. G. Allan, L. G. Underhill, M. Herremans, A. J. Tree, V. Parker & C. J. Brown), pp. 534-535. Johannesburg: Birdlife South Africa.
39. Orell, M. & Belda, E. J. 2002 Delayed cost of reproduction and senescence in the willow tit Parus montanus. J. Anim. Ecol. 71, 55-64.
40. Pen, I. & Weissing, F. J. 2000 Towards a unified theory of cooperative breeding: the role of ecological and life history re-examined. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 267, 2411-2418. (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2000.1299.)
41. Russell, E. 1989 Co-operative breeding - a Gondwanan perspective. Emu 89, 61-62.
42. Siegel, S. & Castellan, N. J. 1988 Nonparametric statistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
43. Stacey, P. B. & Ligon, J. D. 1987 Territory quality and dispersal options in the acorn woodpecker, and a challenge to the habitat-saturation model of cooperative breeding. Am. Nat. 130, 654-676.
44. Stearns, S. C. 1992 The evolution of life histories. Oxford University Press.
45. Tavecchia, G., Pradel, R., Boy, V., Johnson, A. R. & Cézilly, F. 2001 Sex-and age-related variation in survival and cost of first reproduction in greater flamingos. Ecology 82, 165-174.
46. Williams, G. C. 1966 Natural selection, the cost of reproduction, and a refinement of Lack's principle. Am. Nat. 100, 687-690.