Article
Zoology
H. C. Spence-Jones, A. M. Brehm, D. Cram, D. Gaynor, J. Thorley, M. B. Manser, T. H. Clutton-Brock
Summary: In cooperatively breeding meerkats, dominant males are typically immigrants, while dominant females are natal animals. However, in some cases, natal males can become dominant despite being related to the dominant female. Natal dominant males do not seem to receive significant benefits within their natal group, but have a higher chance of acquiring dominance in another group after dispersal.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Veli-Matti Pakanen, Kari Koivula, Blandine Doligez, Lars-Ake Flodin, Angela Pauliny, Nelli Ronka, Donald Blomqvist
Summary: The costs and benefits of dispersal are often assessed through fitness comparison between dispersing and non-dispersing individuals. In migratory shorebirds, adult survival is correlated with natal dispersal, but there is no survival difference between dispersing and non-dispersing individuals. Breeding dispersal probability is higher in failed breeders compared to successful ones.
Article
Ornithology
Alastair M. M. Baylis, Megan Tierney, Rachael A. Orben, Daniel Gonzalez de la Pena, Paul Brickle
Summary: Gentoo Penguins show complex movement patterns during the non-breeding period with high foraging plasticity. There is considerable individual variation in foraging trip distance, duration, and fidelity to deployment location.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Irene Garcia-Ruiz, Andres Quinones, Michael Taborsky
Summary: This study models the coevolution of philopatry and alloparental care in cooperative breeding, finding that direct fitness benefits are the main driver for the evolution of philopatry and kin selection is mainly responsible for the emergence of alloparental care. The coevolution of philopatry and alloparental care is subject to positive feedback.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Constanza Leon, Sam Banks, Nadeena Beck, Robert Heinsohn
Summary: Understanding the effects of environmental conditions on cooperatively breeding species helps to reveal the evolutionary forces behind this social system. This study investigated the genetic structure and dispersal patterns of white-winged choughs, focusing on within-group relatedness and genetic differentiation among groups. The results showed female-biased dispersal during years of abundant rainfall, contrasting with the previous study conducted during a drought. Differences in genetic structure were also found between groups breeding in suburbs versus native woodlands. The study suggests that ecological conditions play an important role in shaping the social structure of cooperatively breeding birds.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Niki Teunissen, Sjouke A. Kingma, Marie Fan, Michael J. Roast, Anne Peters
Summary: Understanding the drivers of cooperative behavior in social groups is crucial for exploring the evolution from solitary individuals to complex societies. The benefits of sociality can come from group living itself or depend on social context, shedding light on the transition to complex social structures.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Andrea L. Liebl, Jeff S. Wesner, Andrew F. Russell, Aaron W. Schrey
Summary: By comparing the genome-wide levels of DNA methylation in cooperatively breeding chestnut-crowned babblers, researchers found that individuals who dispersed in their first year had more changes in methylation state between hatching and fledging. This suggests that developmental stages may play a role in influencing dispersal behavior, but further investigation is needed to determine the exact mechanisms involved.
Article
Ecology
Dario Josi, Jana M. Flury, Maria Reyes-Contreras, Hirokazu Tanaka, Michael Taborsky, Joachim G. Frommen
Summary: Female helpers typically obtain dominant breeding positions immediately after reaching sexual maturity, with reduced growth rates, while males take twice as long to achieve breeder status. Males can either stay subordinate within a dominant male's harem or disperse and become solitary, with different risks and rewards associated with each strategy.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Jianlong Zhu, Ben J. Evans
Summary: In most eukaryotes, aerobic respiration requires interactions between autosomally encoded genes (N-interact genes) and mitochondrial DNA, RNA, and protein. In species where females are philopatric, contrasting distributions of genetic variation in mitochondrial and nuclear genomes create variation in mitonuclear interactions that may be subject to natural selection. Our study on macaque monkeys suggests that natural selection on mitonuclear interactions could have influenced several aspects of macaque societies including species diversity, ecological breadth, female-biased adult sex ratio and demography, sexual dimorphism, and mitonuclear phylogenomics.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Young Ha Suh, Reed Bowman, John W. Fitzpatrick
Summary: This study investigates the formation of groups by unrelated members in animal societies, using the Florida scrub-jay as a case study. The researchers focus on the dispersal behavior of subordinates and compare the adaptive benefits of joining unrelated groups as helpers versus remaining home and dispersing only to breed. They find that staging dispersers, who join unrelated groups, tend to leave at a younger age and move greater distances compared to direct dispersers. The study also reveals sexual asymmetry in dispersal patterns, with staging appearing as an alternative strategy for female helpers and a less optimal choice for males. The findings highlight the plasticity of dispersal behavior in response to social and environmental conditions and contribute to our understanding of non-kin-based social groups.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Sahas Barve, Christina Riehl, Eric L. Walters, Joseph Haydock, Hannah L. Dugdale, Walter D. Koenig
Summary: Cooperative breeding strategies can result in short-term direct fitness losses, but can lead to long-term benefits. In acorn woodpeckers, male duos and trios had greater reproductive success and longer reproductive lifespans compared to those breeding alone, while female duos had comparable lifetime reproductive success to solitary females and higher success than trios. These results suggest that cooperative polygamy may offer significant fitness benefits, especially for males, and the benefits of cobreeding are greater than previously thought for females.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Edmund W. Basham, Macario Gonzalez-Pinzon, Angel Romero-Marcucci, Noah Carl, J. Alex Baecher, Brett R. Scheffers
Summary: This study found that large, old trees (LOTs) in tropical forests are keystone structures providing unique habitats. The yellow-bellied poison frog exhibited vertical migration and strong philopatry to individual trees, primarily inhabiting the largest trees that offered higher-quality microhabitats and epiphytes. LOTs, specifically Anacardium excelsum, are of high conservation value due to their provisioning of unique habitats.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Walter D. Koenig, Joseph Haydock, Hannah L. Dugdale, Eric L. Walters
Summary: This study examines the differences in life history and fitness consequences of inheriting or dispersing to attain breeder status in acorn woodpeckers. The results show that there are no statistical differences in direct or kin-selected fitness benefits between inheritors and dispersers, despite significant differences in life history. However, ecological constraints to dispersal and kin-selected fitness benefits as a helper likely play larger roles in driving the acorn woodpecker's social system.
Review
Psychology, Biological
Barbara Taborsky
Summary: The social environment influences animal behavior, and there is a positive feedback loop between sociality and social competence, possibly mediated by dispersal propensity. This feedback loop has evolutionary consequences for the transmission of social phenotype across generations.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Ahmad Barati, Rose L. Andrew, Paul G. McDonald
Summary: In cooperatively breeding species, the level of investment by both breeders and helpers may be influenced by the sex of offspring, with different fitness payoffs associated with male versus female offspring. However, this study found that despite the expectation of higher care levels from male offspring, the overall inclusive fitness benefits do not vary among the sexes.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alexandra M. Sparks, Lewis G. Spurgin, Marco van der Velde, Eleanor A. Fairfield, Jan Komdeur, Terry Burke, David S. Richardson, Hannah L. Dugdale
Summary: Individual variation in telomere length is predictive of health and mortality risk. The relative influence of environmental and genetic variation on individual telomere length in wild populations remains poorly understood. Parental age at conception may influence offspring telomere length, and heritability and evolvability of telomere length were found to be low in the studied population.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Thomas J. Brown, Lewis G. Spurgin, Hannah L. Dugdale, Jan Komdeur, Terry Burke, David S. Richardson
Summary: The length of telomeres, which are important markers of biological age, can both shorten and lengthen with age and environmental stress. This study found that telomere lengthening in females occurs in less stressful circumstances, while telomere shortening is associated with greater stress. Males, on the other hand, did not show an association between telomere dynamics and key stressors. Individuals with lengthened telomeres, both females and males, had improved subsequent survival compared to those with unchanged or shortened telomeres.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Michela Busana, Franz J. Weissing, Martijn Hammers, Joke Bakker, Hannah L. Dugdale, Sara Raj Pant, David S. Richardson, Terrence A. Burke, Jan Komdeur
Summary: Using causal analysis on data of Seychelles warblers, it is shown that both female and male breeders benefit from the presence of helpers, while food availability does not affect reproductive output. Standard statistical approaches may not be suitable for unraveling such complex causal relationships, suggesting the importance of using structural equation modeling (SEM) to compare alternative hypotheses on fitness differences arising from social and environmental factors.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Ettore Camerlenghi, Alexandra McQueen, Kaspar Delhey, Carly N. Cook, Sjouke A. Kingma, Damien R. Farine, Anne Peters, Noa Pinter-Wollman
Summary: Multilevel societies are considered one of the most complex forms of animal societies, with most research focusing on mammals. This study proposes that multilevel societies could also be common in cooperatively breeding birds, and provides evidence through comparing and analyzing bird species in Australia and New Zealand.
Article
Ecology
Michela Busana, Dylan Z. Childs, Terrence A. Burke, Jan Komdeur, David S. Richardson, Hannah L. Dugdale
Summary: The social environment can impact individual fitness and population dynamics, especially in species with facultative cooperative breeding. In such species, helping behavior can benefit dominants by increasing reproductive rates and reducing mortality. Our study on Seychelles warblers found that stochastic variation in dominants' reproductive rates influences population dynamics, helping behavior promotes population persistence, and there are only early-life differences in direct fitness between helpers and non-helpers.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eleanor C. Sheppard, Claudia A. Martin, Claire Armstrong, Catalina Gonzalez-Quevedo, Juan Carlos Illera, Alexander Suh, Lewis G. Spurgin, David S. Richardson
Summary: Understanding the mechanisms and genes that enable animals to adapt to pathogens is crucial. This study explores the genetic variation associated with avian pox infection in Berthelot's pipit populations. At the individual level, there was no evidence of variation in MHC class I and TLR4 being associated with pox infection. However, at the population-level, strong associations were found between avian pox prevalence and allele frequencies of SNPs located within genes involved in stress signalling and immune responses.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Justin R. Eastwood, Tim Connallon, Kaspar Delhey, Michelle L. Hall, Niki Teunissen, Sjouke A. Kingma, Ariana M. La Porte, Simon Verhulst, Anne Peters
Summary: Climate warming poses risks to wildlife by exposing them to sublethal high temperatures, leading to long-term impacts and reduced adaptability. This study found that the early-life telomere length (TL) of purple-crowned fairy-wren nestlings was associated with climatic and environmental conditions, particularly temperature and water availability. Models predicted that shorter TL under projected warming scenarios could result in population decline. However, if TL is an adaptive trait, population viability may be maintained through evolution.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Mirjam J. Borger, David S. Richardson, Hannah Dugdale, Terry Burke, Jan Komdeur
Summary: Species are facing challenges from rapidly changing environments, such as increased frequency of extreme weather events. While natural selection acts slowly, organisms may use mechanisms like cooperative breeding to cope with rapid change. However, our study on the Seychelles warbler found that low rainfall was associated with reduced reproductive output, but cooperative breeding did not seem to buffer against harsh environments. This highlights the importance of considering the interaction between environment and life histories when studying species survival.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sergio Nolazco, Kaspar Delhey, Marie Fan, Michelle L. Hall, Sjouke A. Kingma, Michael J. Roast, Niki Teunissen, Anne Peters
Summary: Female decorations are often less elaborate than males, and it is unclear how this affects their function. We investigated the condition dependence and fitness associations of plumage patches in female purple-crowned fairy-wrens, some ornamental and some cryptic. Unlike previous studies in males, we found no evidence of fitness benefits associated with female ornaments. Our study suggests that female ornaments may be less informative than male ornaments.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Pat Monaghan, Mats Olsson, David S. Richardson, Simon Verhulst, Sean M. Rogers
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Claudia A. Martin, Eleanor C. Sheppard, Juan Carlos Illera, Alexander Suh, Krystyna Nadachowska-Brzyska, Lewis G. Spurgin, David S. Richardson
Summary: Genomes contain evidence of demographic history and evolutionary forces that shape populations and drive speciation. The study investigated the diversity of the Berthelot's pipit populations and found that the most significant reduction in diversity occurred between the mainland sister species and Berthelot's pipit. The study also revealed the impact of colonization events and bottleneck effects on the populations. Rating: 8/10
Article
Microbiology
Sarah F. F. Worsley, Charli S. S. Davies, Maria-Elena Mannarelli, Jan Komdeur, Hannah L. L. Dugdale, David S. S. Richardson
Summary: The study found that environmental factors play a primary role in shaping the fungal gut microbiome in Seychelles warblers, but components of the host immune system, specifically the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), may also contribute to the variation in fungal communities. Additionally, variation in the fungal microbiome can be associated with differential survival in the wild.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Alexandra M. Sparks, Martijn Hammers, Jan Komdeur, Terry Burke, David S. Richardson, Hannah L. Dugdale
Summary: Parental age has significant effects on offspring's life span and lifetime reproductive success, with the impact being sex-dependent. These intergenerational effects play a crucial role in determining long-term offspring performance and contribute to the variation in longevity and fitness in the wild.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Mirjam J. Borger, Jan Komdeur, David S. Richardson, Franz J. Weissing
Summary: Quantifying fitness is crucial for understanding adaptive evolution. Reproductive values are valuable for comparing the fitness of different categories of individuals, such as males and females. Estimating reproductive values traditionally requires modeling and complex calculations, but a pedigree-based method has gained popularity recently. However, our simulations show that this method is not accurate or precise in estimating reproductive values.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Michael D. Pointer, Lewis G. Spurgin, Matthew J. G. Gage, Mark McMullan, David S. Richardson
Summary: This study investigates the genetic architecture of dispersal behavior in Tribolium castaneum, a post-harvest pest. The researchers demonstrate rapid evolution of dispersal behavior and find no evidence of sex-biases in the trait. The results suggest an oligogenic architecture underlying dispersal in T. castaneum, which has implications for pest management and understanding the evolution of dispersal in beetles.