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D'Amelio PB, Covas R, Ferreira AC, Fortuna R, Silva LR, Theron F, Rybak F, Doutrelant C. Benefits of Pair-Bond Duration on Reproduction in a Lifelong Monogamous Cooperative Passerine. Am Nat 2024; 203:576-589. [PMID: 38635359 DOI: 10.1086/729436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
AbstractLong-term social and genetic monogamy is rare in animals except birds, but even in birds it is infrequent and poorly understood. We investigated possible advantages of monogamy in a colonial, facultative cooperatively breeding bird from an arid, unpredictable environment, the sociable weaver (Philetairus socius). We documented divorce and extrapair paternity of 703 pairs over 10 years and separated effects of pair duration from breeding experience by analyzing longitudinal and cross-sectional datasets. Parts of the colonies were protected from nest predation, thereby limiting its stochastic and thus confounding effect on fitness measures. We found that 6.4% of sociable weaver pairs divorced and 2.2% of young were extrapair. Longer pair-bonds were associated with more clutches and fledglings per season and with reproducing earlier and later in the season, when snake predation is lower, but not with increased egg or fledgling mass or with nestling survival. Finally, the number of helpers at the nest increased with pair-bond duration. Results were similar for protected and unprotected nests. We suggest that long-term monogamy is associated with a better capacity for exploiting a temporally unpredictable environment and helps to form larger groups. These results can contribute to our understanding of why long-term monogamy is frequently associated with unpredictable environments and cooperation.
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Fortuna R, D'Amelio PB, Doutrelant C, Ferreira AC, Lecq C, Silva LR, Covas R, Rybak F, Paquet M. Begging and feeding responses vary with relatedness and sex of provisioners in a cooperative breeder. Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.12.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Quque M, Paquet M, Zahn S, Théron F, Faivre B, Sueur C, Criscuolo F, Doutrelant C, Covas R. Contrasting associations between nestling telomere length and pre and postnatal helpers' presence in a cooperatively breeding bird. Oecologia 2021; 196:37-51. [PMID: 33864121 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-04917-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2020] [Accepted: 04/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Studies on cooperative breeders have addressed the effects of non-breeding 'helpers' on reproduction and parental care, but the consequences for offspring physiology and long-term survival are less understood. Helpers are expected to benefit offspring, but their presence can also lead to decreased pre- or post-natal parental reproductive effort. To examine whether prenatal and postnatal helpers influence offspring condition, we conducted a whole-clutch cross-fostering experiment in sociable weavers (Philetairus socius) that altered the nestlings' social environment (presence/absence of helpers). We tested whether relative telomere length (rTL), an indicator of somatic maintenance, was influenced by prenatal and/or postnatal presence of helpers 9 and 17 days after hatching, and whether rTL predicted long-term survival. Nine days after hatching, we found an overall positive effect of postnatal helpers on rTL: for nestlings with prenatal helpers, a reduction in the number of helpers post-hatch was associated with shorter telomeres, while nestlings swapped from nests without helpers to nests with helpers had a larger rTL. However, when prenatal helpers were present, an increased number of helpers after hatching led to shorter telomeres. Nine-day old chicks with longer rTL tended to be more likely to survive over the 5 years following hatching. However, close to fledging, there was no detectable effect of the experiment on rTL and no link between rTL and survival. This experimental study of a wild cooperative breeder, therefore, presents partial support for the importance of the presence of helpers for offspring rTL and the link between early-life telomere length and long-term survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Quque
- CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
| | - Matthieu Paquet
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sandrine Zahn
- CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Frank Théron
- CNRS, CEFE UMR 5175, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Bruno Faivre
- Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR 6282, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Cédric Sueur
- CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | | | - Claire Doutrelant
- CNRS, CEFE UMR 5175, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.,Research Centre On Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, CIBIO-InBio, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Rita Covas
- Research Centre On Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, CIBIO-InBio, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.,Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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Thomson CE, Hadfield JD. No evidence for sibling or parent-offspring coadaptation in a wild population of blue tits, despite high power. Evolution 2018; 73:28-41. [PMID: 30417945 PMCID: PMC6587764 DOI: 10.1111/evo.13642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2018] [Accepted: 10/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Parent and offspring behaviors are expected to act as both the agents and targets of selection. This may generate parent-offspring coadaptation in which parent and offspring behaviors become genetically correlated in a way that increases inclusive fitness. Cross-fostering has been used to study parent-offspring coadaptation, with the prediction that offspring raised by non-relatives, or parents raising non-relatives, should suffer fitness costs. Using long-term data from more than 400 partially crossed broods of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), we show that there is no difference in mass or survival between crossed and non-crossed chicks. However, previous studies for which the evidence for parent-offspring coadaptation is strongest compare chicks from fully crossed broods with those from non-crossed broods. When parent-offspring coadaptation acts at the level of the brood then partial cross-fostering experiments are not expected to show evidence of coadaptation. To test this, we performed an additional experiment (163 broods) in which clutches were either fully crossed, non-crossed, or partially crossed. In agreement with the long-term data, there was no evidence for parent-offspring coadaptation on offspring fitness despite high power. In addition there was no evidence of effects on parental fitness, nor evidence of sibling coadaptation, although the power of these tests was more modest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline E Thomson
- Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, United Kingdom.,Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom
| | - Jarrod D Hadfield
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom
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Paquet M, Drummond H, Smiseth PT. Offspring are predisposed to beg more towards females in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.05.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
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Ratz T, Smiseth PT. Flexible parents: joint effects of handicapping and brood size manipulation on female parental care in
Nicrophorus vespilloides. J Evol Biol 2018; 31:646-656. [DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2017] [Revised: 02/08/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tom Ratz
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
| | - Per T. Smiseth
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
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Females manipulate behavior of caring males via prenatal maternal effects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:6800-6805. [PMID: 28607046 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1619759114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In species with biparental care, there is sexual conflict as each parent is under selection to minimize its personal effort by shifting as much as possible of the workload over to the other parent. Most theoretical and empirical work on the resolution of this conflict has focused on strategies used by both parents, such as negotiation. However, because females produce the eggs, this might afford females with an ability to manipulate male behavior via maternal effects that alter offspring phenotypes. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the prenatal conditions (i.e., presence or absence of the male), performed a cross-fostering experiment, and monitored the subsequent effects of prenatal conditions on offspring and parental performance in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides We found that offspring were smaller at hatching when females laid eggs in presence of a male, suggesting that females invest less in eggs when expecting male assistance. Furthermore, broods laid in the presence of a male gained more weight during parental care, and they did so at the expense of male weight gain. Contrary to our expectations, males cared less for broods laid in the presence of a male. Our results provide experimental evidence that females can alter male behavior during breeding by adjusting maternal effects according to prenatal conditions. However, rather than increasing the male's parental effort, females appeared to suppress the male's food consumption, thereby leaving more food for their brood.
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Dijk RE, Covas R, Doutrelant C, Spottiswoode CN, Hatchwell BJ. Fine‐scale genetic structure reflects sex‐specific dispersal strategies in a population of sociable weavers (
Philetairus socius
). Mol Ecol 2015; 24:4296-311. [DOI: 10.1111/mec.13308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2014] [Revised: 06/29/2015] [Accepted: 07/06/2015] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- René E. Dijk
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Western Bank Sheffield S10 2TN UK
| | - Rita Covas
- CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources University of Porto Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas no 7 4485‐661 Vairão Portugal
- Biology Department Science Faculty University of Porto Rua Campo Alegre s/n 4169‐007 Porto Portugal
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Rondebosch 7701 South Africa
| | - Claire Doutrelant
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Rondebosch 7701 South Africa
- CEFE‐CNRS 1919 Route de Mende Cedex 5 F 34293 Montpellier France
| | - Claire N. Spottiswoode
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Rondebosch 7701 South Africa
- Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ UK
| | - Ben J. Hatchwell
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Western Bank Sheffield S10 2TN UK
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