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García-Ruiz I, Taborsky M. Nepotism mediates enforced cooperation in asymmetric negotiations. iScience 2024; 27:110334. [PMID: 39100926 PMCID: PMC11295936 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2024] [Revised: 05/07/2024] [Accepted: 06/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/06/2024] Open
Abstract
In cooperative societies, group members typically exchange different commodities among each other, which involves an incessant negotiation process. How is the conflict of fitness interests resolved in this continual bargaining process between unequal partners, so that maintaining the cooperative interaction is the best option for all parties involved? Theory predicts that relatedness between group members may alleviate the conflict of fitness interests, thereby promoting the evolution of cooperation. To evaluate the relative importance of relatedness and direct fitness effects in the negotiation process, we experimentally manipulated both the relatedness and mutual behavioral responses of dominant breeders and subordinate helpers in the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher. Results show that coercion by breeders is crucial for the performance of alloparental egg care by helpers, but that kinship significantly decreases the need for coercion as predicted by theory. This illustrates the relative importance of kinship and enforcement in the bargaining process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene García-Ruiz
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Michael Taborsky
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland
- Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), 14193 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78467 Konstanz, Germany
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Wang D, Zhang W, Yang S, Richter XYL. Sex differences in avian parental care patterns vary across the breeding cycle. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6980. [PMID: 37914691 PMCID: PMC10620184 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42767-5] [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: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Parental care in birds consists of elaborate forms across stages, including nest building, incubation, and offspring provision. Despite their evolutionary importance, knowledge gaps exist in the extent to which parents contribute disproportionately to these forms and factors that are associated with variations in care patterns between sexes. Here, we analyzed 1533 bird species and discovered remarkable variability in care patterns. We show that parental care should not be viewed as a unitary trait but rather as a set of integrated features that exhibit considerable temporal and sex-specific variation. Our analyses also reveal moderate consistency in care patterns between breeding stages, pointing towards shared intrinsic factors driving sex-specific care. Notably, we found that species experiencing strong sexual selection on males or species facing paternity uncertainty display a tendency towards female-biased care. This work advances our understanding of the temporal variations in sex-specific contributions to avian parental care and their potential evolutionary drivers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daiping Wang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang, 100101, Beijing, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China.
| | - Wenyuan Zhang
- Edward Grey Institute, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
- Department of Biology, Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada
| | - Shuai Yang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang, 100101, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Xiang-Yi Li Richter
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland.
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Jenkins JB, Mueller AJ, Thompson CF, Sakaluk SK, Bowers EK. Female birds monitor the activity of their mates while brooding nest-bound young. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:613-628. [PMID: 33392914 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01453-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
In addition to food and protection, altricial young in many species are ectothermic and require that endothermic parents provide warmth to foster growth, yet only one parent-typically the female-broods these young to keep them warm. When this occurs, reduced provisioning by males obliges females to forage instead of providing warmth for offspring, favoring the temporal mapping of male activities. We assessed this in a wild house wren population while experimentally feeding nestlings to control offspring satiety. While brooding, females look out from the nest to inspect their surroundings, and we hypothesized that this helps to determine if their mate is nearby and likely to deliver food to the brood (males pass food to brooding females, which pass the food to nestlings). Females looked out from the nest less often when their partner was singing nearby and when his singing and provisioning were temporally linked, signaling his impending food delivery. Females also left to forage less often when their mate was nearby and likely to deliver food. Nestling begging did not affect these behaviors. Females looking out from the nest more often also provisioned at a higher rate and were more likely to divorce and find a new mate prior to nesting again within seasons, as expected if females switch mates when a male fails to meet expectations. Our results suggest anticipatory effects generated by male behavior and that brooding females temporally map male activity to inform decisions about whether to continue brooding or to leave the nest to forage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan B Jenkins
- Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Biodiversity Research, Edward J. Meeman Biological Station, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| | - Alexander J Mueller
- Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Biodiversity Research, Edward J. Meeman Biological Station, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA.,National Park Service, Southeast Utah Group, Moab, UT, 84532, USA
| | - Charles F Thompson
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 61790-4120, USA
| | - Scott K Sakaluk
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 61790-4120, USA
| | - E Keith Bowers
- Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Biodiversity Research, Edward J. Meeman Biological Station, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA.
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Johnstone RA, Savage JL. Conditional Cooperation and Turn-Taking in Parental Care. Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Ihle M, Pick JL, Winney IS, Nakagawa S, Burke T. Measuring Up to Reality: Null Models and Analysis Simulations to Study Parental Coordination Over Provisioning Offspring. Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Santema P, Schlicht E, Kempenaers B. Testing the Conditional Cooperation Model: What Can We Learn From Parents Taking Turns When Feeding Offspring? Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Enduring rules of care within pairs - how blue tit parents resume provisioning behaviour after experimental disturbance. Sci Rep 2019; 9:2776. [PMID: 30808890 PMCID: PMC6391394 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39139-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Sexual conflict over parental investment can result in suboptimal reproductive output. A recent hypothesis suggests that equality in investment, and hence conflict resolution, may be reached via coordination of parental activities like alternating nest visits. However, how robust patterns of care within couples are against temporal disturbances that create asymmetries in parental investment remains as yet to be shown. We here experimentally created such a social disturbance in a wild population of biparental blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) when provisioning their nestlings. We randomly caught and subsequently released one of the parents when nestlings were 6 and 12 days old respectively. On average, the parent that was caught did not resume care for nearly two hours. We then compared the levels of individual investment and within-pair coordination before, during and after the absence of the disturbed parent. We show that the remaining parent partially compensated by increasing its provisioning rate, but this compensatory response was strongest in females when nestlings were 6 days old. Once the caught parent returned to feed its nestlings, both parents resumed provisioning at a similar rate as before the disturbance. Likewise, the within-pair alternation level quickly resembled the pre-manipulated level, independent of nestling age or which sex was caught. Thus our experiment highlights the resilience of parental behaviour against temporal disturbances of individual parents.
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Santema P, Kempenaers B. Complete brood failure in an altricial bird is almost always associated with the sudden and permanent disappearance of a parent. J Anim Ecol 2018; 87:1239-1250. [PMID: 29892974 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2017] [Accepted: 04/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
A central goal in evolutionary ecology is to identify factors that explain variation in reproductive success, i.e. in the number of offspring produced. In altricial birds, a substantial part of this variation is determined by the number of nestlings that die before fledging, but surprisingly little is known about the proximate causes of offspring mortality during the nestling period. We used a uniquely comprehensive dataset of parental nestbox visits from seven breeding seasons to investigate the association between parental behaviour and nestling mortality in a population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). In almost all nests that suffered complete brood mortality one of the parents had suddenly disappeared during the nestling stage. In contrast, parental disappearance in nests with partial brood mortality was rare and equally common as in nests with no brood loss. With few exceptions, parents that disappeared during the nestling stage were never observed again and never returned to breed. In contrast, parents that remained after their partner disappeared were equally likely to be observed again or return to breed as parents of nests where both parents stayed. Visit rates at nests where a parent would disappear did not differ from those at nests where both parents stayed. Taken together, our results show that - in contrast to partial brood failure - complete brood failure is almost always associated with the sudden and permanent disappearance of one of the parents, probably due to predation. Partial and complete brood mortality should be treated as distinct processes that have different underlying causes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Santema
- Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Bart Kempenaers
- Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
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Decreasing parental task specialization promotes conditional cooperation. Sci Rep 2017; 7:6565. [PMID: 28747694 PMCID: PMC5529357 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06667-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2017] [Accepted: 06/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
How much to invest in parental care and by who remain puzzling questions fomented by a sexual conflict between parents. Negotiation that facilitates coordinated parental behaviour may be key to ease this costly conflict. However, understanding cooperation requires that the temporal and sex-specific variation in parental care, as well as its multivariate nature is considered. Using a biparental bird species and repeated sampling of behavioural activities throughout a major part of reproduction, we show a clear division of tasks between males and females in provisioning, brooding and foraging. Such behavioural specializations fade with increasing nestling age, which stimulates the degree of alternated feeding visits, as a recently promoted form of conditional cooperation. However, such cooperation is thought to benefit offspring development, which is not supported by our data. Thus, from a proximate point of view, conditional cooperation via alternation critically depends on the division of parental tasks, while the ultimate benefits have yet to be shown.
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Within- and between-individual (co)variance partitioning reveals limited pleiotropic effects of testosterone on immune function, sexual signaling, and parental investment. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2308-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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Goymann W, Safari I, Muck C, Schwabl I. Sex roles, parental care and offspring growth in two contrasting coucal species. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2016; 3:160463. [PMID: 27853561 PMCID: PMC5098986 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The decision to provide parental care is often associated with trade-offs, because resources allocated to parental care typically cannot be invested in self-maintenance or mating. In most animals, females provide more parental care than males, but the reason for this pattern is still debated in evolutionary ecology. To better understand sex differences in parental care and its consequences, we need to study closely related species where the sexes differ in offspring care. We investigated parental care in relation to offspring growth in two closely related coucal species that fundamentally differ in sex roles and parental care, but live in the same food-rich habitat with a benign climate and have a similar breeding phenology. Incubation patterns differed and uniparental male black coucals fed their offspring two times more often than female and male white-browed coucals combined. Also, white-browed coucals had more 'off-times' than male black coucals, during which they perched and preened. However, these differences in parental care were not reflected in offspring growth, probably because white-browed coucals fed their nestlings a larger proportion of frogs than insects. A food-rich habitat with a benign climate may be a necessary, but-perhaps unsurprisingly-is not a sufficient factor for the evolution of uniparental care. In combination with previous results (Goymann et al. 2015 J. Evol. Biol. 28, 1335-1353 (doi:10.1111/jeb.12657)), these data suggest that white-browed coucals may cooperate in parental care, because they lack opportunities to become polygamous rather than because both parents were needed to successfully raise all offspring. Our case study supports recent theory suggesting that permissive environmental conditions in combination with a particular life history may induce sexual selection in females. A positive feedback loop among sexual selection, body size and adult sex-ratio may then stabilize reversed sex roles in competition and parental care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Goymann
- Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Abteilung für Verhaltensneurobiologie, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 6a, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
- Coucal Project, PO Box 26, Chimala, Tanzania
| | - Ignas Safari
- Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Abteilung für Verhaltensneurobiologie, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 6a, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
- Coucal Project, PO Box 26, Chimala, Tanzania
- Department of Conservation Biology, University of Dodoma, PO Box 338, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Christina Muck
- Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Abteilung für Verhaltensneurobiologie, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 6a, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Ingrid Schwabl
- Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Abteilung für Verhaltensneurobiologie, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 6a, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
- Coucal Project, PO Box 26, Chimala, Tanzania
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Schlicht E, Santema P, Schlicht R, Kempenaers B. Evidence for conditional cooperation in biparental care systems? A comment on Johnstone et al. Behav Ecol 2016. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arw036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Sexually antagonistic selection during parental care is not generated by a testosterone-related intralocus sexual conflict-insights from full-sib comparisons. Sci Rep 2015; 5:17715. [PMID: 26625951 PMCID: PMC4667218 DOI: 10.1038/srep17715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2015] [Accepted: 11/04/2015] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolution of shared male and female traits can be hampered if selection favours sex-specific optima. However, such genomic conflicts can be resolved when independent male and female mechanisms evolve. The existence, extent and consequences of conflict and/or conflict resolution are currently debated. Endocrinological traits like plasma testosterone (T) are suitable test cases, given their important role in mediating correlated traits, plus their opposing sex-specific fitness effects. We compared full-sibling (brother/sister) captive canaries to test for (1) sexually antagonistic selection characterized by contrasting fitness patterns within pairs of relatives, (2) intersexual genetic correlation of plasma T (h(²) = 0.41 ± 0.31) and (3) intralocus sexual conflict over T levels featured by distinct sex-specific fitness optima. We found potential for sexually antagonistic selection, since high fledgling mass was reached by either brothers or sisters, but not by both. We report a positive intersexual correlation for T, as a requirement for intralocus sexual conflict. However, high levels of T were associated with increased female and decreased male fitness (fledgling mass), which contrasts our expectations and challenges the hypothesis of intralocus sexual conflict driven by T. We hypothesize that behavioural and physiological trade-offs differ between sexes when raising offspring, driving T levels towards a state of monomorphism.
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