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Branch CL, Welklin JF, Sonnenberg BR, Benedict LM, Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. What's in a mate? Social pairing decisions and spatial cognitive ability in food-caching mountain chickadees. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231073. [PMID: 37700643 PMCID: PMC10498033 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
While researchers have investigated mating decisions for decades, gaps remain in our understanding of how behaviour influences social mate choice. We compared spatial cognitive performance and food caching propensity within social pairs of mountain chickadees inhabiting differentially harsh winter climates to understand how these measures contribute to social mate choice. Chickadees rely on specialized spatial cognitive abilities to recover food stores and survive harsh winters, and females can discriminate among males with varying spatial cognition. Because spatial cognition and caching propensity are critical for survival and likely heritable, pairing with a mate with such enhanced traits may provide indirect benefits to offspring. Comparing the behaviour of social mates, we found that spatial cognitive performance approached a significant correlation within pairs at low, but not at high elevation. We found no correlation within pairs in spatial reversal cognitive performance at either elevation; however, females at high elevation tended to perform better than their social mates. Finally, we found that caching propensity correlated within pairs at low, while males cached significantly more food than their social mates at high elevations. These results suggest that cognition and caching propensity may influence social mating decisions, but only in certain environments and for some aspects of cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carrie L. Branch
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Benjamin R. Sonnenberg
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Lauren M. Benedict
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | | | - Angela M. Pitera
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Eli S. Bridge
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Vladimir V. Pravosudov
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
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Kern JM, Morris-Drake A, Radford AN. Behavioural, demographic and fitness consequences of social instability in cooperatively breeding dwarf mongoose groups. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20230901. [PMID: 37583317 PMCID: PMC10427820 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Social instability frequently arises in group-living species, but the potential costs have rarely been investigated in free-living cooperative breeders, especially across different timeframes. Using natural observations, body mass measurements and life-history data from dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula), we determined the short- and long-term consequences of a change in one of the dominant breeding pairs. We found that a new breeder led to alterations in both collective and individual behaviours (i.e. increases in communal scent-marking, engagement in intergroup interactions, sentinel activity and within-group grooming), as well as reduced body mass gain, further demographic changes and decreased reproductive success (i.e. fewer pups surviving to adulthood). The effects were particularly apparent when it was the female breeder who changed; new female breeders were younger than more experienced counterparts. Our findings support the idea that stability and cooperation are strongly linked and provide potential reasons for previously documented health and fitness benefits of social stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie M. Kern
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale 2351, NSW, Australia
| | - Amy Morris-Drake
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Andrew N. Radford
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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High pair fidelity despite sex differences in the duration of parental care in a long-lived migratory bird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03156-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Does the Urban Environment Act as a Filter on the Individual Quality of Birds? BIRDS 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/birds3010007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Phenotypic divergences of birds are common between urban and natural habitats and can result from different selective pressures between habitats or maladaptation to the city. No uniform patterns were observed, especially concerning markers of bird health, such as, for example, telomere length. Telomeres are involved in maintaining genome integrity and naturally shorten with age, but environmental stressors can accelerate their attrition. Thus, telomere length can be an indicator of individual quality. Some studies showed that urban breeders had longer telomeres than forest individuals. Two hypotheses can explain this result: (1) urban breeders are younger than forests breeders, and (2) cities act as a filter on individuals and only high-quality birds can successfully reproduce. In this context, we compared the age category (molting pattern) and morphological and physiological characteristics of urban and forest Great Tits before and during breeding. No differences in age or body condition were observed. However, urban breeders were smaller and had shorter telomeres than birds captured in winter. Urban birds had longer telomeres than forest birds, only in winter. These results highlight that urban habitats potentially favor smaller birds. However, the decrease in telomere length between winter and reproduction only in the city suggest a higher cost of reproduction in the city compared to the forest.
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