Reduced Egg Investment Can Conceal Helper Effects in Cooperatively Breeding Birds

Science ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 317 (5840) ◽  
pp. 941-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Russell ◽  
N. E. Langmore ◽  
A. Cockburn ◽  
L. B. Astheimer ◽  
R. M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding

scholarly journals Sex Allocation Patterns across Cooperatively Breeding Birds Do Not Support Predictions of the Repayment Hypothesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 190 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nyil Khwaja ◽  
Ben J. Hatchwell ◽  
Robert P. Freckleton ◽  
Jonathan P. Green
Keyword(s):  
Sex Allocation ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Allocation Patterns

scholarly journals Nest predation predicts infanticide in a cooperatively breeding bird

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 20190314
Author(s):  
Yi-Ru Cheng ◽  
Dustin R. Rubenstein ◽  
Sheng-Feng Shen
Keyword(s):  
Nest Predation ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Parental Response ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Living Species

In cooperatively breeding species, social conflict is typically assumed to underlie destructive behaviours like infanticide. However, an untested alternative hypothesis in birds is that infanticide in the form of egg tossing may simply be a parental response to partial nest predation representing a life-history trade-off. We examined egg tossing behaviour in the colonial and cooperatively breeding grey-capped social weaver ( Pseudonigrita arnaudi ), a plural breeder in which pairs nest separately, often in the same tree. Using infrared nest cameras, we found that 78% of the tossing events from 2012 to 2017 were committed by parents, suggesting that social conflict is unlikely to be the main reason underlying egg tossing in this species. Instead, reductions in clutch size due to both natural and experimentally simulated predation induced parental egg tossing. Our study suggests that destructive behaviour in cooperatively breeding birds can be shaped by a variety of mechanisms beyond social conflict and that alternative hypotheses must be considered when studying the adaptive significance of infanticide in group-living species.

scholarly journals Can we measure the benefits of help in cooperatively breeding birds: the case of superb fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus?

2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Cockburn ◽  
Rachel A. Sims ◽  
Helen L. Osmond ◽  
David J. Green ◽  
Michael C. Double ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Malurus Cyaneus
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