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Koenig WD, Barve S, Haydock J, Dugdale HL, Oli MK, Walters EL. Lifetime inclusive fitness effects of cooperative polygamy in the acorn woodpecker. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2219345120. [PMID: 37126712 PMCID: PMC10175847 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2219345120] [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: 11/20/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Although over 50 y have passed since W. D. Hamilton articulated kin selection and inclusive fitness as evolutionary explanations for altruistic behavior, quantifying inclusive fitness continues to be challenging. Here, using 30 y of data and two alternative methods, we outline an approach to measure lifetime inclusive fitness effects of cooperative polygamy (mate-sharing or cobreeding) in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus. For both sexes, the number of offspring (observed direct fitness) declined while the number of young parented by related cobreeders (observed indirect fitness effect) increased with cobreeding coalition size. Combining these two factors, the observed inclusive fitness effect of cobreeding was greater than breeding singly for males, while the pattern for females depended on whether fitness was age-weighted, as females breeding singly accrued greater fitness at younger ages than cobreeding females. Accounting for the fitness birds would have obtained by breeding singly, however, lifetime inclusive fitness effects declined with coalition size for males, but were greater for females breeding as duos compared to breeding singly, due largely to indirect fitness effects of kin. Our analyses provide a road map for, and demonstrate the importance of, quantifying indirect fitness as a powerful evolutionary force contributing to the costs and benefits of social behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Walter D. Koenig
- Hastings Natural History Reservation, University of California Berkeley, Carmel Valley, CA93924
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14850
| | - Sahas Barve
- Avian Ecology Program, Archbold Biological Station, Venus, FL33960
- Division of Birds, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC20560
| | - Joseph Haydock
- Biology Department, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA99258
| | - Hannah L. Dugdale
- Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, UK
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen9747 AG, The Netherlands
| | - Madan K. Oli
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | - Eric L. Walters
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA23529
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2
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Constructing social networks from automated telemetry data: A worked example using within‐ and across‐group associations in cooperatively breeding birds. Methods Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.13737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Koenig WD, Prinz ACB, Haydock J, Dugdale HL, Walters EL. Are you my baby? Testing whether paternity affects behavior of cobreeder male acorn woodpeckers. Behav Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Natural selection is expected to favor males that invest more in offspring they sire. We investigated the relationship between paternity and male behavior in the acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), a cooperative breeder that lives in family groups including offspring that remain on their natal territory, sometimes for years, and cobreeders of both sexes. Regardless of group composition, only one communal nest is attended at a time. Whereas cobreeding females share maternity equally, one male usually sires the majority of young in the group’s communal nest. Copulations are rarely observed, and thus it has not been possible to link paternity to sexual behavior. There were no differences among cobreeder males that did or did not sire young in their propensity to roost in the nest cavity at night. However, cobreeder males that attended females continuously prior to egg-laying were more likely to successfully sire young than males that did not, and the relative share of feeding visits and time spent at the subsequent nest were positively related to a male’s realized paternity. These differences in male behavior were partly due to differences among males and partly to plasticity in male behavior covarying with paternity share. Feedings by males successfully siring young also involved a larger proportion of nutritionally valuable insect prey. Males are aware of their paternity success, apparently because of their relative access to females prior to egg laying, and provide more paternal care at nests in which they are more likely to have sired young.
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Affiliation(s)
- Walter D Koenig
- Hastings Reservation, University of California Berkeley , Carmel Valley, CA , USA
- Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY , USA
| | - Anna C B Prinz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University , Norfolk, VA , USA
| | - Joseph Haydock
- Biology Department, Gonzaga University , Spokane, WA , USA
| | - Hannah L Dugdale
- Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds , Leeds , UK
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen , AG Groningen , The Netherlands
| | - Eric L Walters
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University , Norfolk, VA , USA
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Barve S, Riehl C, Walters EL, Haydock J, Dugdale HL, Koenig WD. Lifetime reproductive benefits of cooperative polygamy vary for males and females in the acorn woodpecker ( Melanerpes formicivorus). Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210579. [PMID: 34403633 PMCID: PMC8370801 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperative breeding strategies lead to short-term direct fitness losses when individuals forfeit or share reproduction. The direct fitness benefits of cooperative strategies are often delayed and difficult to quantify, requiring data on lifetime reproduction. Here, we use a longitudinal dataset to examine the lifetime reproductive success of cooperative polygamy in acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), which nest as lone pairs or share reproduction with same-sex cobreeders. We found that males and females produced fewer young per successful nesting attempt when sharing reproduction. However, males nesting in duos and trios had longer reproductive lifespans, more lifetime nesting attempts and higher lifetime reproductive success than those breeding alone. For females, cobreeding in duos increased reproductive lifespan so the lifetime reproductive success of females nesting in duos was comparable to those nesting alone and higher than those nesting in trios. These results suggest that for male duos and trios, reproductive success alone may provide sufficient fitness benefits to explain the presence of cooperative polygamy, and the benefits of cobreeding as a duo in females are higher than previously assumed. Lifetime individual fitness data are crucial to reveal the full costs and benefits of cooperative polygamy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahas Barve
- Division of Birds, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Christina Riehl
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Eric L. Walters
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
| | - Joseph Haydock
- Department of Biology, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258, USA
| | - Hannah L. Dugdale
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG, The Netherlands
| | - Walter D. Koenig
- Hastings Reservation, University of California Berkeley, 38601 E. Carmel Valley Rd., Carmel Valley, CA 93924, USA
- Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
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Dibben‐Young A, Harmon KC, Lunow‐Luke A, Idle JL, Christensen DL, Price MR. Cooperative breeding behaviors in the Hawaiian Stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus knudseni). Ecol Evol 2021; 11:5010-5016. [PMID: 34025987 PMCID: PMC8131765 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperative breeding, which is commonly characterized by nonbreeding individuals that assist others with reproduction, is common in avian species. However, few accounts have been reported in Charadriiformes, particularly island-nesting species. We present incidental observations of cooperative breeding behaviors in the Hawaiian Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni), an endangered subspecies of the Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), during the 2012-2020 nesting seasons on the Hawaiian islands of O'ahu and Moloka'i. We describe two different behaviors that are indicative of cooperative breeding: (a) egg incubation by multiple adults; (b) helpers-at-the-nest, whereby juveniles delay dispersal and reproduction to assist parents and siblings with reproduction. These observations are the first published accounts of cooperative breeding in this subspecies and merit further investigation, as cooperative breeding may improve population viability of the endangered, endemic Hawaiian Stilt.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kristen C. Harmon
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Arianna Lunow‐Luke
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Jessica L. Idle
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Dain L. Christensen
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Melissa R. Price
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
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Ostwald MM, Fox TP, Harrison JF, Fewell JH. Social consequences of energetically costly nest construction in a facultatively social bee. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210033. [PMID: 33906404 PMCID: PMC8080015 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Social groups form when the costs of breeding independently exceed fitness costs imposed by group living. The costs of independent breeding can often be energetic, especially for animals performing expensive behaviours, such as nest construction. To test the hypothesis that nesting costs can drive sociality by disincentivizing independent nest founding, we measured the energetics of nest construction and inheritance in a facultatively social carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina Smith), which bores tunnel nests in wood. We measured metabolic rates of bees excavating wood and used computerized tomography images of nesting logs to measure excavation volumes. From these data, we demonstrate costly energetic investments in nest excavation of a minimum 4.3 kJ per offspring provisioned, an expense equivalent to nearly 7 h of flight. This high, potentially prohibitive cost of nest founding may explain why females compete for existing nests rather than constructing new ones, often leading to the formation of social groups. Further, we found that nest inheritors varied considerably in their investment in nest renovation, with costs ranging more than 12-fold (from 7.08 to 89.1 kJ energy), probably reflecting differences in inherited nest quality. On average, renovation costs were lower than estimated new nest construction costs, with some nests providing major savings. These results suggest that females may join social groups to avoid steep energetic costs, but that the benefits of this strategy are not experienced equally.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Trevor P. Fox
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Jon F. Harrison
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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West SA, Cooper GA, Ghoul MB, Griffin AS. Ten recent insights for our understanding of cooperation. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:419-430. [PMID: 33510431 PMCID: PMC7612052 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01384-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Since Hamilton published his seminal papers in 1964, our understanding of the importance of cooperation for life on Earth has evolved beyond recognition. Early research was focused on altruism in the social insects, where the problem of cooperation was easy to see. In more recent years, research into cooperation has expanded across the entire tree of life, and has been revolutionized by advances in genetic, microbiological and analytical techniques. We highlight ten insights that have arisen from these advances, which have illuminated generalizations across different taxa, making the world simpler to explain. Furthermore, progress in these areas has opened up numerous new problems to solve, suggesting exciting directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart A West
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Guy A Cooper
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Pardo MA, Walters EL, Koenig WD. Experimental evidence that acorn woodpeckers recognize relationships among third parties no longer living together. Behav Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Triadic awareness, or knowledge of the relationships between others, is essential to navigating many complex social interactions. While some animals maintain relationships with former group members post-dispersal, recognizing cross-group relationships between others may be more cognitively challenging than simply recognizing relationships between members of a single group because there is typically much less opportunity to observe interactions between individuals that do not live together. We presented acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a highly social species, with playback stimuli consisting of a simulated chorus between two different individuals, a behavior that only occurs naturally between social affiliates. Subjects were expected to respond less rapidly if they perceived the callers as having an affiliative relationship. Females responded more rapidly to a pair of callers that never co-occurred in the same social group, and responded less rapidly to callers that were members of the same social group at the time of the experiment and to callers that last lived in the same group before the subject had hatched. This suggests that female acorn woodpeckers can infer the existence of relationships between conspecifics that live in separate groups by observing them interact after the conspecifics in question no longer live in the same group as each other. This study provides experimental evidence that nonhuman animals may recognize relationships between third parties that no longer live together and emphasizes the potential importance of social knowledge about distant social affiliates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A Pardo
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Eric L Walters
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
| | - Walter D Koenig
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Hastings Reservation, University of California Berkeley, Carmel Valley, CA, USA
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Pardo MA, Hayes CE, Walters EL, Koenig WD. Acorn woodpeckers vocally discriminate current and former group members from nongroup members. Behav Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
In species with long-term social relationships, the ability to recognize individuals after extended separation and the ability to discriminate between former social affiliates that have died and those that have left the group but may return are likely to be beneficial. Few studies, however, have investigated whether animals can make these discriminations. We presented acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a group-living, cooperatively breeding bird, with playbacks of current group members, former group members still living nearby, former group members that had died or left the study area, and familiar nongroup members. Subjects responded more quickly to the calls of nongroup members than to the calls of current group members or former group members still living in the study area but did not discriminate between nongroup members and former group members that had died or disappeared. This suggests that acorn woodpeckers can vocally recognize both current group members and former group members that have dispersed to nearby groups and that they either forget former group members that no longer live in the vicinity or classify them differently from former group members that still live nearby. This study suggests an important role for vocal recognition in maintaining valuable relationships with social affiliates postdispersal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A Pardo
- Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, 901 Amy Van Dyken Way, Fort Collins, CO, USA
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, 215 Tower Road, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Casey E Hayes
- and Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
| | - Eric L Walters
- and Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
| | - Walter D Koenig
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, 215 Tower Road, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, USA
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Termignoni-Garcia F, Louder MIM, Balakrishnan CN, O’Connell L, Edwards SV. Prospects for sociogenomics in avian cooperative breeding and parental care. Curr Zool 2020; 66:293-306. [PMID: 32440290 PMCID: PMC7233861 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoz057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 11/20/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
For the last 40 years, the study of cooperative breeding (CB) in birds has proceeded primarily in the context of discovering the ecological, geographical, and behavioral drivers of helping. The advent of molecular tools in the early 1990s assisted in clarifying the relatedness of helpers to those helped, in some cases, confirming predictions of kin selection theory. Methods for genome-wide analysis of sequence variation, gene expression, and epigenetics promise to add new dimensions to our understanding of avian CB, primarily in the area of molecular and developmental correlates of delayed breeding and dispersal, as well as the ontogeny of achieving parental status in nature. Here, we outline key ways in which modern -omics approaches, in particular genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and epigenetic profiling such as ATAC-seq, can be used to add a new level of analysis of avian CB. Building on recent and ongoing studies of avian social behavior and sociogenomics, we review how high-throughput sequencing of a focal species or clade can provide a robust foundation for downstream, context-dependent destructive and non-destructive sampling of specific tissues or physiological states in the field for analysis of gene expression and epigenetics. -Omics approaches have the potential to inform not only studies of the diversification of CB over evolutionary time, but real-time analyses of behavioral interactions in the field or lab. Sociogenomics of birds represents a new branch in the network of methods used to study CB, and can help clarify ways in which the different levels of analysis of CB ultimately interact in novel and unexpected ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavia Termignoni-Garcia
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Matthew I M Louder
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
| | | | - Lauren O’Connell
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Scott V Edwards
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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11
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Barve S, Hagemeyer NDG, Winter RE, Chamberlain SD, Koenig WD, Winkler DW, Walters EL. Wandering woodpeckers: foray behavior in a social bird. Ecology 2020; 101:e02943. [PMID: 31782526 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2019] [Revised: 09/17/2019] [Accepted: 10/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
In many cooperatively breeding taxa, nonbreeding subordinates, or helpers, use extra-territorial forays to discover dispersal opportunities. Such forays are considered energetically costly and foraying birds face aggression from conspecific members of the territories they visit. In contrast, breeders in cooperatively breeding taxa are expected to foray seldomly. We used novel tracking technologies to follow 62 acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a cooperatively breeding bird, to study extra-territorial foray behavior. Both helpers and breeders engaged in extra-territorial forays routinely and often several times per day. Helpers forayed earlier in the day and invested more time when foraying to high-quality territories. Unexpectedly, breeders forayed as often and as far as helpers. Breeders from high-quality territories forayed closer to their home territories than breeders from low-quality territories, reflecting a potential trade-off between foraying and territory defense. Such a routine pattern of extra-territorial forays in both helpers and breeders suggests that the motives behind forays differ by sex and social status and involve more than simply searching for dispersal opportunities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahas Barve
- Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 23529, USA.,Hastings Natural History Reservation, University of California, Carmel Valley, California, 93924, USA.,National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, 20560, USA
| | | | | | | | - Walter D Koenig
- Hastings Natural History Reservation, University of California, Carmel Valley, California, 93924, USA.,Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14850, USA
| | - David W Winkler
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and TABER, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA.,Cellular Tracking Technologies, Rio Grande, New Jersey, 08242, USA.,Conservation Science Global, West Cape May, New Jersey, 08204, USA
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Can't see the “hood” for the trees: Can avian cooperative breeding currently be understood using the phylogenetic comparative method? ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.asb.2019.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
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