Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Contributors......Page 10
Introduction......Page 13
IDENTIFYING COOPERATIVE BREEDING AND THE ISSUE OF HOMOLOGY......Page 17
EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN VERSUS EVOLUTIONARY MAINTENANCE......Page 18
The origins of altriciality......Page 19
Origins of alloparental behavior......Page 22
Regular cooperative breeders......Page 23
ECOLOGY AND COOPERATIVE BREEDING: PROBLEMS OF CAUSE AND EFFECTS......Page 24
PHYLOGENETIC PATTERNS AND COOPERATIVE BREEDING......Page 25
Cooperative breeding appears to be the primitive condition......Page 26
Bee-eaters, family Meropidae......Page 27
Red-cockaded woodpecker......Page 28
Western scrub-jay......Page 30
Lanius shrikes......Page 32
LIMITATIONS OF PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSES......Page 33
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 34
2 Delayed dispersal......Page 47
THE UNCOUPLING OF DELAYED DISPERSAL FROM COOPERATIVE BREEDING......Page 48
Delayed dispersal: where to wait......Page 49
Environmental and life-history correlates of cooperative breeding......Page 50
BENEFITS OF DELAYED DISPERSAL......Page 51
Increased access to high-quality territories or mates......Page 52
Nepotistic concession of food......Page 54
Nepotism in defense......Page 55
The relative importance of nepotism versus territory quality......Page 56
COSTS OF DELAYED DISPERSAL FOR OFFSPRING......Page 57
CONCLUSION......Page 58
3 Fitness consequences of helping......Page 60
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON KIN-DIRECTED HELPING AT THE NEST......Page 61
Why stay?......Page 62
Why help?......Page 64
Direct fitness benefits......Page 65
Indirect fitness benefits......Page 67
CAN HELPING AND STAYING BE UNCOUPLED?......Page 70
STEPWISE REPRODUCTIVE DECISION-MAKING AND KIN-DIRECTED HELPING......Page 71
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEHAVIORAL PLASTICITY: REDIRECTED HELPING AS A ROUTE TO KIN-BASED COOPERATIVE BREEDING......Page 73
LONG-TAILED TITS: A CASE STUDY OF REDIRECTED HELPING......Page 74
POPULATION CONSEQUENCES OF REDIRECTED HELPING…......Page 75
CONCLUSION......Page 77
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 78
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM......Page 79
THE BENEFITS OF ALLOPARENTAL CARE......Page 80
HOW COSTLY IS CARE?......Page 81
SHORT- VERSUS LONG-TERM COSTS OF CARE......Page 82
A GENERAL MODEL OF ALLOPARENTAL CARE......Page 83
SIMPLE MODEL......Page 84
Breeder’s perspective......Page 85
Helper’s perspective......Page 86
IMPLICATIONS OF THE MODEL......Page 87
Cost curves affect help and survival......Page 89
Combined effects of costs and benefits......Page 90
A LIFE-HISTORY APPROACH TO THE PROVISION OF HELP......Page 91
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 92
5 Mating systems and sexual conflict......Page 93
Who participates in the mating system?......Page 94
Female choice......Page 100
Type 1: joint-nesting polygyny......Page 101
Type 2: egalitarian polygynandry......Page 102
Type 3: flexible polygynandry......Page 104
Type 4: plural breeding......Page 105
Type 5: egalitarian polyandry......Page 106
Type 6: contextual polyandry......Page 107
Type 7: hidden leks......Page 108
Type 8: true monogamy with helpers......Page 109
What are the main benefits females derive from mate choice?......Page 110
What is the evidence that males negotiate mating access?......Page 111
Where now?......Page 112
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 113
6 Sex-ratio manipulation......Page 114
The major ideas......Page 115
Difficulties applying the theory to birds......Page 116
SEX-RATIO BIAS AT THE POPULATION AND INDIVIDUAL LEVEL......Page 117
SEX-ALLOCATION THEORY AND COOPERATIVE BREEDING......Page 118
The facultative level......Page 119
MECHANISMS AND COSTS OF SEX-RATIO CONTROL......Page 125
LIMITATIONS OF PAST APPROACHES......Page 126
CONCLUSION......Page 127
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 128
Diet......Page 129
Food storage......Page 130
Development of foraging skills......Page 131
Communal roosting......Page 132
Vigilance......Page 133
Pied kingfisher......Page 134
Acorn woodpecker......Page 135
Arabian babbler......Page 136
DRAWING THE LINK BETWEEN ENERGY EXPENDITURE AND FITNESS PARAMETERS......Page 137
CONCLUSION......Page 138
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 139
Reproductive hormones......Page 140
Hormones and behavior: fundamental questions......Page 141
Pied kingfisher......Page 142
Florida scrub-jay......Page 143
Mexican jay......Page 145
White-browed sparrow-weaver......Page 146
Harris’s hawk......Page 147
Bell miner......Page 148
Red-cockaded woodpecker......Page 149
Superb fairy-wren......Page 150
Endocrinology and the unselected hypothesis......Page 151
Reproductive hormones......Page 152
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 153
9 Incest and incest avoidance......Page 154
Mexican jays: the danger of demographic inference......Page 156
Pukeko: incest down under?......Page 157
Green woodhoopoes: incidental inbreeding?......Page 158
Dwarf mongooses: inbreeding without cost?......Page 159
Seychelles warblers: island incest following a bottleneck......Page 160
Common moorhens: incest as making the best of a bad job?......Page 161
Red-cockaded woodpecker: dispersal and incest avoidance......Page 162
Acorn woodpeckers: incest avoidance at a cost......Page 163
Incest avoidance mechanisms in cooperative breeders......Page 164
Incest avoidance and reproductive skew......Page 166
CONCLUSION......Page 167
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 168
10 Reproductive skew......Page 169
Restraint model......Page 170
Concession and restraint: the zone of stability and conflict......Page 171
Relatedness symmetry......Page 172
Social queuing and adult survival......Page 173
Tug-of-war model......Page 174
Compromise within a transaction framework: the synthetic model......Page 175
Female choice and sexual conflict......Page 176
CONFOUNDING VARIABLES AND THE PROBLEM OF TESTING THE MODELS......Page 177
White-browed scrubwrens: simple groups formed by natal philopatry......Page 179
Acorn woodpeckers: multiple breeders, incest avoidance, and constrained random mating......Page 181
White-winged choughs: obligate cooperation and annual variation in constraints......Page 182
PROSPECTS......Page 184
Group size and productivity......Page 185
Benefits of grouping and cooperation......Page 186
CONCLUSIONS......Page 187
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 188
11 Joint laying systems......Page 189
Mating system......Page 190
Conclusions......Page 191
Nesting behavior......Page 193
Mating system......Page 194
Nesting behavior......Page 195
Fitness effects......Page 196
Mating system......Page 197
Fitness effects......Page 198
Mating system......Page 200
Nesting behavior......Page 201
Helper species with occasional cobreeding......Page 202
Conspecific brood parasitism and the evolution of joint nesting......Page 204
Multiple contexts for the evolution of joint nesting......Page 206
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 208
THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF COOPERATIVELY BREEDING BIRDS......Page 209
HABITAT LOSS......Page 210
HABITAT FRAGMENTATION......Page 211
Dispersal patterns among cooperative breeders......Page 212
Dispersal behavior and response to habitat fragmentation......Page 214
Population dynamics......Page 216
THE SYMBOLIC VALUE OF COOPERATIVE BREEDERS......Page 217
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 218
DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY......Page 222
Delayed dispersal in vegetarians......Page 224
Delayed dispersal in carnivores......Page 225
Synthesis: when to delay dispersal......Page 226
Reproductive skew among social mammals......Page 227
Mechanisms of reproductive skew......Page 228
Synthesis: theories explaining reproductive skew......Page 230
Benefits to parents......Page 231
Benefits to offspring......Page 233
Direct fitness benefits......Page 234
Costs of helping......Page 235
Contributions to cooperation......Page 236
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH......Page 237
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 239
(1) DIFFERENT AUTHORS DEFINE COOPERATIVE BREEDING DIFFERENTLY......Page 240
(3) COOPERATIVE BREEDING IS NOT A MATING SYSTEM......Page 241
(4) THE IMPORTANCE OF “COOPERATION” VARIES ACROSS SPECIES, AND IS OBLIGATORY FOR VERY FEW......Page 242
(6) THERE ARE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF BOTH DELAYED DISPERSAL AND HELPING......Page 243
(7) COOPERATION DOES NOT IMPLY LACK OF COMPETITION......Page 244
(8) COOPERATIVE BREEDERS SHARE MANY CHARACTERISTICS......Page 245
(10) SEXUAL SELECTION CAN BE STRONG IN COOPERATIVE BREEDING SYSTEMS......Page 246
(11) THERE CAN BE SIGNIFICANT INTERPOPULATION DIFFERENCES IN COOPERATIVELY BREEDING SPECIES......Page 247
(12) INBREEDING IN COOPERATIVELY BREEDING SPECIES IS NO MORE INTENSE THAN IN OTHER SYSTEMS......Page 248
SUMMARY......Page 249
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 250
BIRDS......Page 251
MAMMALS......Page 253
References......Page 254
Taxonomic index......Page 291
Subject index......Page 302