Variation in contributions to teaching by meerkats

Abstract

Recent evidence from cooperative insect, bird and mammal societies has challenged the assumption that teaching is restricted to humans. However, little is known about the factors affecting the degree to which individuals in such societies contribute to teaching. Here, I examine variation in contributions to teaching in meerkats, where older group members teach pups to handle difficult prey. I show that investment in teaching varies with characteristics of pups, helpers, groups and ecological conditions. Although prior experience in caring for pups did not significantly influence teaching behaviour, younger helpers, which were still investing in growth, contributed less to teaching than older individuals. This suggests that, in common with other cooperative activities, contributions to teaching vary with the costs experienced by individual group members. However, in contrast to other forms of helping in meerkats, I detected no effects of nutritional state on teaching, suggesting that it carries relatively low costs. In species where individuals can potentially gain direct or indirect fitness benefits from facilitating learning in others, low costs divided among multiple group members may help tip the balance towards selection for teaching.

Identifying teaching in wild animals

“…Such helpers may gain indirect benefits from assisting related young but may also benefit directly-for example, by increasing the size of the group to which they belong (Kokko, Johnstone, & Clutton-Brock, 2001;Thornton & Raihani, 2008) and reducing the burden of caring for young by accelerating their development. The net fitness benefits from teaching in cooperative breeders may also be magnified because the costs of teaching are divided among group members (Thornton, 2008b), possibly accounting for the fact that, to date, the strongest evidence for teaching has been found in cooperatively breeding species. pups, Parabuthus scorpions were less likely to be killed and more likely to be provisioned intact than Opistophthalmus scorpions (Figure 1; see also Table S1 in the supplemental materials).…”

“…Giving away live prey is considerably more costly than feeding pups dead prey items, because of the need to monitor pups' handling attempts and the risk that the prey will escape or injure the pup (Thornton & McAuliffe, 2006). Consequently, young helpers that are still investing in their own growth typically contribute less than older helpers to the teaching of pups: When they feed pups, they are less likely than older helpers to give away live prey, and they tend to spend less time than do older helpers watching pups handling prey (Thornton, 2008b). A similar tendency for young helpers to contribute relatively little to cooperative activities is common in many social species Clutton-Brock et al, 2000;Heinsohn & Legge, 1999).…”

“…Similarly, adults spend more time monitoring pups' handling attempts if the prey is large and alive than if it is small and dead (Thornton, 2008b).…”

“…In common with other cooperative activities, individual contributions to teaching should vary in response to the costs and benefits incurred (Thornton, 2008b), raising two important issues for future research. First, the balance of costs and benefits may be highly sensitive to environmental conditions.…”

“…Nevertheless, some manipulations may still be possible, particularly in seminatural conditions such as breeding and rehabilitation centers. For example, falconers commonly train raptors to catch their are relatively low and are, therefore, particularly likely to be outweighed by the delayed benefits of promoting learning in others (Thornton, 2008b).…”