Age-related provisioning behaviour in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker: Testing the skills and the pay-to-stay hypotheses

Animal Behaviour

Volumn 82, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 437-444

  Koenig, Walter D ^a,b   Walters, Eric L ^a  

^a Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program   (United States)

^b Department of Obstetrics Gynecology   (United States)

Author keywords

Acorn woodpecker; Cooperative breeding; Experience hypothesis; Helping at the nest; Melanerpes formicivorus; Pay to stay hypothesis; Skills hypothesis

Indexed keywords

AGE; BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY; BIRD; DISPERSAL; FEEDING BEHAVIOR; FITNESS; HERITABILITY; REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR; REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS;

AVES; MELANERPES FORMICIVORUS;

EID: 80051664546     PISSN: 00033472     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.028     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Ashmole N.P. The regulation of numbers of tropical oceanic birds. Ibis 1963, 103b:458-473.
2. Balshine-Earn S., Neat F.C., Reid H., Taborsky M. Paying to stay or paying to breed? Field evidence for direct benefits of helping behavior in a cooperatively breeding fish. Behavioral Ecology 1998, 9:432-438.
3. Bergmüller R., Taborsky M. Experimental manipulation of helping in a cooperative breeder: helpers 'pay to stay' by pre-emptive appeasement. Animal Behaviour 2005, 69:19-28.
4. Bergmüller R., Heg D., Taborsky M. Helpers in a cooperatively breeding cichlid stay and pay or disperse and breed, depending on ecological constraints. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2005, 272:325-331.
5. Brown J.L. Helping and Communal Breeding in Birds 1987, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
6. Bruintjes R., Taborsky M. Helpers in a cooperative breeder pay a high price to stay: effects of demand, helper size and sex. Animal Behaviour 2008, 75:1843-1850.
7. Bryant C.E.W. Birds notes and birds' notes. Emu 1928, 28:62-65.
8. Clutton-Brock T. Breeding together: kin selection and mutualism in cooperative vertebrates. Science 2002, 296:69-72.
9. Dalgaard P. Introductory Statistics with R 2008, Springer, New York. 2nd edn.
10. Dickinson J.L., Hatchwell B.J. Fitness consequences of helping. Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds 2004, 48-66. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. W.D. Koenig, J.L. Dickinson (Eds.).
11. Dickinson J.L., Haydock J., Koenig W.D., Stanback M.T., Pitelka F.A. Genetic monogamy in single-male groups of acorn woodpeckers, Melanerpes formicivorus. Molecular Ecology 1995, 4:765-769.
12. Dickinson J.L., Koenig W.D., Pitelka F.A. Fitness consequences of helping behavior in the western bluebird. Behavioral Ecology 1996, 7:168-177.
13. Ekman J., Dickinson J.L., Hatchwell B.J., Griesser M. Delayed dispersal. Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds 2004, 35-47. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. W.D. Koenig, J.L. Dickinson (Eds.).
14. Emlen S.T., Wrege P.H. The role of kinship in helping decisions among white-fronted bee-eaters. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 1988, 23:305-315.
15. Gaston A.J. The evolution of group territorial behavior and cooperative breeding. American Naturalist 1978, 112:1091-1100.
16. Hamilton I.M., Taborsky M. Unrelated helpers will not fully compensate for costs imposed on breeders when they pay to stay. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2005, 272:445-454.
17. Haydock J., Koenig W.D., Stanback M.T. Shared parentage and incest avoidance in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker. Molecular Ecology 2001, 10:1515-1525.
18. Khan M.Z., Walters J.R. Is helping a beneficial learning experience for red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) helpers?. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 1997, 41:69-73.
19. Koenig W.D., Mumme R.L. Population Ecology of the Cooperative Breeding Acorn Woodpecker 1987, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
20. Koenig W.D., Knops J.M.H., Carmen W.J., Stanback M.T., Mumme R.L. Estimating acorn crops using visual surveys. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 1994, 24:2105-2112.
21. Koenig W.D., Mumme R.L., Carmen W.J., Stanback M.T. Acorn production by oaks in central coastal California: variation within and among years. Ecology 1994, 75:99-109.
22. Koenig W.D., Stacey P.B., Stanback M.T., Mumme R.L. Acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). Birds of North America. No. 194 1995, 1-24. Academy of Natural Sciences, Washington, D.C, Philadelphia: American Ornithologists' Union. A. Poole, F. Gill (Eds.).
23. Koenig W.D., Van Vuren D., Hooge P.N. Detectability, philopatry, and the distribution of dispersal distances in vertebrates. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 1996, 11:514-517.
24. Koenig W.D., Haydock J., Stanback M.T. Reproductive roles in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker: incest avoidance versus reproductive competition. American Naturalist 1998, 151:243-255.
25. Koenig W.D., Hooge P.N., Stanback M.T., Haydock J. Natal dispersal in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker. Condor 2000, 102:492-502.
26. Koenig, W. D., Walters, E. L. & Haydock, J. In press. Variable helper effects, ecological conditions, and the evolution of cooperative breeding in the acorn woodpecker. American Naturalist.
27. Kokko H., Johnstone R.A., Clutton-Brock T.H. The evolution of cooperative breeding through group augmentation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2001, 268:187-196.
28. Kokko H., Johnstone R.A., Wright J. The evolution of parental and alloparental effort in cooperatively breeding groups: when should helpers pay to stay?. Behavioral Ecology 2002, 13:291-300.
29. Komdeur J. Influence of helping and breeding experience on reproductive performance in the Seychelles warbler: a translocation experiment. Behavioral Ecology 1996, 7:326-333.
30. Lack D. The Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers 1954, Clarendon, Oxford.
31. Ligon J.D., Ligon S.H. Communal breeding in green woodhoopoes as a case for reciprocity. Nature 1978, 276:496-498.
32. McDonald P.G., Kazem A.J.N., Clarke M.F., Wright J. Helping as a signal: does removal of potential audiences alter helper behavior in the bell miner?. Behavioral Ecology 2008, 19:1047-1055.
33. McDonald P.G., Kazem A.J.N., Wright J. Cooperative provisioning dynamics: fathers and unrelated helpers show similar responses to manipulations of begging. Animal Behaviour 2009, 77:369-376.
34. Mitchell J.S. Social correlates of reproductive success in false clown anemonefish: subordinate group members do not pay-to-stay. Evolutionary Ecology Research 2003, 5:89-104.
35. Mulder R.A., Langmore N.E. Dominant males punish helpers for temporary defection in superb fairy-wrens. Animal Behaviour 1993, 45:830-833.
36. Mumme R.L., de Queiroz A. Individual contributions to cooperative behaviour in the acorn woodpecker: effects of reproductive status, sex, and group size. Behaviour 1985, 95:290-313.
37. Mumme R.L., Koenig W.D., Pitelka F.A. Individual contributions to cooperative nest care in the acorn woodpecker. Condor 1990, 92:360-368.
38. R Development Core Team R: a Language and Environment for Statistical Computing 2010, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. http://www.r-project.org.
39. Selander R.K. Speciation in wrens of the genus Campylorynchus. University of California Publications in Zoology 1964, 74:1-305.
40. Snowdon C.T., Cronin K.A. Cooperative breeders do cooperate. Behavioural Processes 2007, 76:138-141.
41. Stanback M.T. Dominance within broods of the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker. Animal Behaviour 1994, 47:1121-1126.
42. Walters J.R., Doerr P.D., Carter J.H. Delayed dispersal and reproduction as a life-history tactic in cooperative breeders: fitness calculations from red-cockaded woodpeckers. American Naturalist 1992, 139:623-643.
43. Wong M., Balshine S. The evolution of cooperative breeding in the African cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. Biological Reviews 2011, 86:511-530.
44. Zahavi A. Altruism as a handicap: the limitations of kin selection and reciprocity. Journal of Avian Biology 1995, 26:1-3.