Helping Communal Breeding in Birds

Brown, Jerram L.

doi:10.1515/9781400858569

Cited by 686 publications

(358 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…First, mature individuals forgo independent breeding. Then, if they remain in the natal territory, conditions allow them to engage in helping (Koenig & Pitelka 1981;Emlen 1982Emlen , 1991Brown 1987). In cooperative breeders, delayed reproduction was initially mainly explained through the ecologicalconstraints (Koenig & Pitelka 1981;Emlen 1982Emlen , 1991Brown 1987) or benefits-of-philopatry (Stacey & Ligon 1987) hypotheses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Covas

Doutrelant

Plessis

2004

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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In many species mature individuals delay independent reproduction and may help others to reproduce. This behaviour is often explained through ecological constraints, although recently attention has also been paid to the variation in habitat quality. If the quality of vacant habitat influences the fitness trade-off between delaying reproduction and breeding independently, individuals should delay reproduction when conditions for breeding are poor. Yet, no study has experimentally manipulated habitat quality or the conditions experienced during the breeding period to test this assertion conclusively. We report results from an experiment conducted on a colonial cooperative bird with no territory constraints on reproduction. We artificially improved breeding conditions in several colonies of sociable weavers, Philetairus socius, through the provision of an easily obtainable and unlimited supply of food. We provide experimental evidence showing that under enhanced conditions some individuals reduce their age at first reproduction, a greater proportion of colony members engage in independent breeding and proportionally fewer birds act as helpers. Hence, these results also provide evidence for a direct influence of reproductive costs on life-history decisions such as age at first reproduction and breeding and helping behaviours.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Covas

Doutrelant

Plessis

2004

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…Wildlife conservation through community self-monitoring is an example of`by-product mutualism' (Brown 1987), in which some cooperative behaviouröhere, not poachingöis an incidental consequence of otherwise sel¢sh behaviour. The mechanism that supports byproduct mutualism is a su¤ciently adverse environment, which requires a`boomerang factor'öi.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the strategic stability of monitoring: implications for cooperative wildlife programmes in Africa

Mesterton‐Gibbons

Milner‐Gulland

1998

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Game-theoretic modelling is used to study the design of an agreement among residents to conserve a wildlife resource, by not hunting animals illegally, when the community monitors its own behaviour. The analysis demonstrates that such an agreement may be very much costlier for a government to sustain if its incentive structure avoids the payment of monitoring fees, and instead relies on community bene¢ts for conservation, with bonuses for reporting poachers. Conditions are identi¢ed for the agreement to be stable against both the temptation to avoid monitoring and the temptation to poach, either with guns or by snaring. In particular, the size of the community must exceed a critical value. Implications are discussed for community-based wildlife management programmes in Africa.

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“…Although such plural nesting may be harder for dominant females to prevent, it is relatively rare: just four of the 37 (10.8%) bird species in our dataset were plural-nesting species, while 29.7 per cent were joint-nesting species. The occurrence of plural nesting may be limited by food and habitat availability (Brown 1987;Hatchwell & Komdeur 2000). Furthermore, secondary females' nests are often less successful than those of dominants (Curry 1988;Williams 2004;Berg 2005), perhaps owing to interference by dominants (Curry 1988) and because secondary females commonly receive little or no assistance from auxiliaries (Langen & Vehrencamp 1999).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher reproductive skew among birds than mammals in cooperatively breeding species

Raihani

Clutton‐Brock

2010

Biol. Lett.

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While competition for limited breeding positions is a common feature of group life, species vary widely in the extent to which reproduction is shared among females (‘reproductive skew’). In recent years, there has been considerable debate over the mechanisms that generate variation in reproductive skew, with most evidence suggesting that subordinates breed when dominants are unable to prevent them from doing so. Here, we suggest that viviparity reduces the ability of dominant females to control subordinate reproduction and that, as a result, dominant female birds are more able than their mammal counterparts to prevent subordinates from breeding. Empirical data support this assertion. This perspective may increase our understanding of how cooperative groups form and are stabilized in nature.

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Helping Communal Breeding in Birds

Cited by 686 publications

References 1 publication

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

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

On the strategic stability of monitoring: implications for cooperative wildlife programmes in Africa

Higher reproductive skew among birds than mammals in cooperatively breeding species

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