scholarly journals Familiar neighbours, but not relatives, enhance fitness in a territorial mammal

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin R. Siracusa ◽  
Stan Boutin ◽  
Ben Dantzer ◽  
Jeffrey E. Lane ◽  
David W. Coltman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
North American Red Squirrels ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Effects Of Aging

SummaryOne of the outstanding questions in evolutionary biology is the extent to which mutually beneficial interactions and kin-selection can facilitate the evolution of cooperation by mitigating conflict between interacting organisms. The indirect fitness benefits gained from associating with kin are an important pathway to conflict resolution [1], but conflict can also be resolved if individuals gain direct benefits from cooperating with one another (e.g. mutualism or reciprocity) [2]. Owing to the kin-structured nature of many animal societies, it has been difficult for previous research to assess the relative importance of these mechanisms [3–5]. However, one area that might allow for the relative roles of kin-selection and mutualistic benefits to be disentangled is in the resolution of conflict over territorial space [6]. While much research has focused on group-living species, the question of how cooperation can first be favoured in solitary, territorial species remains a key question. Using 22 years of data from a population of North American red squirrels, we assessed how kinship and familiarity with neighbours affected fitness in a territorial mammal. While living near kin did not enhance fitness, familiarity with neighbours increased survival and annual reproductive success. These fitness benefits were strong enough to compensate for the effects of aging later in life, with potential consequences for the evolution of senescence. We suggest that such substantial fitness benefits provide the opportunity for the evolution of cooperation between adversarial neighbours, offering insight into the role that mutually beneficial behaviours might play in facilitating and stabilizing social systems.Graphical Abstract

scholarly journals Kin selection in Columbian ground squirrels ( Urocitellus columbianus ): littermate kin provide individual fitness benefits

2009 ◽  
Vol 277 (1684) ◽  
pp. 989-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent A. Viblanc ◽  
Coline M. Arnaud ◽  
F. Stephen Dobson ◽  
Jan O. Murie
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Evolution Of Sociality ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Columbian Ground Squirrels

Since W. D. Hamilton's seminal work on the evolution of sociality, a large body of research has accumulated on how kin selection might explain the evolution of cooperation in many group-living species. Our study examined the evolutionary basis of philopatry and cooperation; specifically, whether individuals benefit from the presence of close kin. We applied an individual fitness approach to a 16-year study of Columbian ground squirrels ( Urocitellus columbianus ) to investigate potential causal paths by which the presence of kin might act on individual fitness. Our results indicate that individual fitness benefits resulted from associations of philopatric female kin, and support the hypothesis that increased tolerance of proximity of kin is a proximate mechanism for these benefits. The major life-history influence of kin on individual fitness was through improved reproductive success, and this benefit may have been owing to philopatric settlement of kin that were recognized through familiarization in the natal burrow. Thus, we demonstrated an evolutionary basis necessary for ongoing kin-selected cooperation in Columbian ground squirrels, though the mechanism of familiarity may determine which kin individuals benefit from cooperative behaviours.

scholarly journals Cooperation for direct fitness benefits

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1553) ◽  
pp. 2619-2626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olof Leimar ◽  
Peter Hammerstein
Keyword(s):  
Partner Choice ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Alternative Processes ◽  
Trait Correlations

Studies of the evolution of helping have traditionally used the explanatory frameworks of reciprocity and altruism towards relatives, but recently there has been an increasing interest in other kinds of explanations. We review the success or otherwise of work investigating alternative processes and mechanisms, most of which fall under the heading of cooperation for direct benefits. We evaluate to what extent concepts such as by-product benefits, pseudo-reciprocity, sanctions and partner choice, markets and the build-up of cross-species spatial trait correlations have contributed to the study of the evolution of cooperation. We conclude that these alternative ideas are successful and show potential to further increase our understanding of cooperation. We also bring up the origin and role of common interest in the evolution of cooperation, including the appearance of organisms. We note that there are still unresolved questions about the main processes contributing to the evolution of common interest. Commenting on the broader significance of the recent developments, we argue that they represent a justified balancing of the importance given to different major hypotheses for the evolution of cooperation. This balancing is beneficial because it widens considerably the range of phenomena addressed and, crucially, encourages empirical testing of important theoretical alternatives.

scholarly journals Sex, long life and the evolutionary transition to cooperative breeding in birds

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1816) ◽  
pp. 20151663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. Downing ◽  
Charlie K. Cornwallis ◽  
Ashleigh S. Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Typical Feature ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Female Promiscuity ◽  
Helping Behaviour ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Long Life ◽  
The Relationship

Long life is a typical feature of individuals living in cooperative societies. One explanation is that group living lowers mortality, which selects for longer life. Alternatively, long life may make the evolution of cooperation more likely by ensuring a long breeding tenure, making helping behaviour and queuing for breeding positions worthwhile. The benefit of queuing will, however, depend on whether individuals gain indirect fitness benefits while helping, which is determined by female promiscuity. Where promiscuity is high and therefore the indirect fitness benefits of helping are low, cooperation can still be favoured by an even longer life span. We present the results of comparative analyses designed to test the likelihood of a causal relationship between longevity and cooperative breeding by reconstructing ancestral states of cooperative breeding across birds, and by examining the effect of female promiscuity on the relationship between these two traits. We found that long life makes the evolution of cooperation more likely and that promiscuous cooperative species are exceptionally long lived. These results make sense of promiscuity in cooperative breeders and clarify the importance of life-history traits in the evolution of cooperative breeding, illustrating that cooperation can evolve via the combination of indirect and direct fitness benefits.

scholarly journals Evolutionary routes to non-kin cooperative breeding in birds

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1772) ◽  
pp. 20132245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Riehl
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Group Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding

Cooperatively breeding animals live in social groups in which some individuals help to raise the offspring of others, often at the expense of their own reproduction. Kin selection—when individuals increase their inclusive fitness by aiding genetic relatives—is a powerful explanation for the evolution of cooperative breeding, particularly because most groups consist of family members. However, recent molecular studies have revealed that many cooperative groups also contain unrelated immigrants, and the processes responsible for the formation and maintenance of non-kin coalitions are receiving increasing attention. Here, I provide the first systematic review of group structure for all 213 species of cooperatively breeding birds for which data are available. Although the majority of species (55%) nest in nuclear family groups, cooperative breeding by unrelated individuals is more common than previously recognized: 30% nest in mixed groups of relatives and non-relatives, and 15% nest primarily with non-relatives. Obligate cooperative breeders are far more likely to breed with non-kin than are facultative cooperators, indicating that when constraints on independent breeding are sufficiently severe, the direct benefits of group membership can substitute for potential kin-selected benefits. I review three patterns of dispersal that give rise to social groups with low genetic relatedness, and I discuss the selective pressures that favour the formation of such groups. Although kin selection has undoubtedly been crucial to the origin of most avian social systems, direct benefits have subsequently come to play a predominant role in some societies, allowing cooperation to persist despite low genetic relatedness.

scholarly journals Benefits of living closer to kin vary by genealogical relationship in a territorial mammal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam F. Walmsley ◽  
Stan Boutin ◽  
Ben Dantzer ◽  
Jeffrey Lane ◽  
David W. Coltman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Annual Survival ◽  
Genealogical Relationship ◽  
North American Red Squirrels ◽  
Fathers And Sons

While cooperative interactions among kin are a key building block in the societies of group-living mammals, their importance for species with more variable social environments is unclear. North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) defend individual territories in dynamic neighbourhoods and are known to benefit from living among familiar conspecifics, but not relatives. However, kin-directed behaviours may be restricted to specific genealogical relationships or strongly mediated by geographic distance, masking their influence at broader scales. Using distance between territories as a proxy for the ability of individuals to interact, we estimated the influence of primary kin (parents, offspring, siblings) on the annual survival and reproductive success of red squirrels. Contrary to previous work, this approach revealed large fitness effects of living closer to kin, but only for certain genealogical relationships and fitness components. For example, females had enhanced annual survival when living closer to their daughters, though the reverse was not true. Most surprising was the finding that males had higher annual reproductive success when living closer to their father, raising new questions about cooperation among fathers and sons. Together, these findings reveal unexpected nuance in the fitness consequences of kinship dynamics for a species that is territorial and largely solitary.

scholarly journals Trinidadian guppies use a social heuristic that can support cooperation among non-kin

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1934) ◽  
pp. 20200487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safi K. Darden ◽  
Richard James ◽  
James M. Cave ◽  
Josefine Bohr Brask ◽  
Darren P. Croft
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Limitations ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Cooperation among non-kin is well documented in humans and widespread in non-human animals, but explaining the occurrence of cooperation in the absence of inclusive fitness benefits has proven a significant challenge. Current theoretical explanations converge on a single point: cooperators can prevail when they cluster in social space. However, we know very little about the real-world mechanisms that drive such clustering, particularly in systems where cognitive limitations make it unlikely that mechanisms such as score keeping and reputation are at play. Here, we show that Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) use a ‘walk away’ strategy, a simple social heuristic by which assortment by cooperativeness can come about among mobile agents. Guppies cooperate during predator inspection and we found that when experiencing defection in this context, individuals prefer to move to a new social environment, despite having no prior information about this new social group. Our results provide evidence in non-human animals that individuals use a simple social partner updating strategy in response to defection, supporting theoretical work applying heuristics to understanding the proximate mechanisms underpinning the evolution of cooperation among non-kin.

scholarly journals Evolutionary theory of bacterial quorum sensing: when is a signal not a signal?

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1483) ◽  
pp. 1241-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P Diggle ◽  
Andy Gardner ◽  
Stuart A West ◽  
Ashleigh S Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Quorum Sensing ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Population Response ◽  
Future Action ◽  
Bacterial Quorum Sensing ◽  
Bacterial Quorum

The term quorum sensing (QS) is used to describe the communication between bacterial cells, whereby a coordinated population response is controlled by diffusible molecules produced by individuals. QS has not only been described between cells of the same species (intraspecies), but also between species (interspecies) and between bacteria and higher organisms (inter-kingdom). The fact that QS-based communication appears to be widespread among microbes is strange, considering that explaining both cooperation and communication are two of the greatest problems in evolutionary biology. From an evolutionary perspective, intraspecies signalling can be explained using models such as kin selection, but when communication is described between species, it is more difficult to explain. It is probable that in many cases this involves QS molecules being used as ‘cues’ by other species as a guide to future action or as manipulating molecules whereby one species will ‘coerce’ a response from another. In these cases, the usage of QS molecules cannot be described as signalling. This review seeks to integrate the evolutionary literature on animal signalling with the microbiological literature on QS, and asks whether QS within bacteria is true signalling or whether these molecules are also used as cues or for the coercion of other cells.

Constraints on First Reproduction in North American Red Squirrels

Oikos ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Dustin Becker ◽  
Stan Boutin ◽  
Karl W. Larsen
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
First Reproduction ◽  
North American Red Squirrels

North American red squirrels mitigate costs of territory defence through social plasticity

2019 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin R. Siracusa ◽  
David R. Wilson ◽  
Emily K. Studd ◽  
Stan Boutin ◽  
Murray M. Humphries ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Territory Defence ◽  
Social Plasticity ◽  
North American Red Squirrels
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