scholarly journals Compensatory and additive helper effects in the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 2986-2995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte A. van Boheemen ◽  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
David S. Richardson ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte A. van Boheemen ◽  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
David S. Richardson ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn cooperatively breeding species, helper aid may affect dominant breeders’ investment trade-offs between current and future reproduction. By compensating for the care provided by helpers, breeders can reduce the costs of reproduction and improve chances of survival. Also, helper care can be additive to that of dominants, resulting in higher success of the current brood.However, the influence of helpers on offspring care itself may be the by-product of group size and territory quality. Therefore to make conclusive inferences about causation of additive and compensatory care as a result of helpper serequires disentangling the impact of helping from other factors determining parental investment.In this study, we use 20 years of offspring provisioning data to investigate the effect of helping on breeder and overall offspring provisioning rates in the facultative cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis). Our extensive dataset allowed us to effectively control for the effects of living in a larger group and in territories with higher food availability.We show compensatory and additive care in response to helper aid. Helpers lightened the provisioning load of the dominant male and female and increased the total provisioning to the nestlings. This was irrespective of group size or territory quality (food availability).Our results illustrate how multiple benefits of helping behaviour can simultaneously be fundamental to the evolutionary maintenance of cooperative behaviour.



2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 1251-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Groenewoud ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Hannah L. Dugdale ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
...  


Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Lyanne Brouwer

Rescue behaviour is a special form of cooperation in which a rescuer exhibits behaviours directed towards averting a threat to an endangered individual, thereby potentially putting itself at risk. Although rescue behaviour has been well-documented in experimental studies on rats and ants, published cases in other non-human animals are rare. Here, we report observations of rescue behaviour in the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis). In this species, individuals sometimes become entangled in seed clusters of ‘bird-catcher trees’ (Pisonia grandis). Just one or a few of these sticky seeds can prevent Seychelles warblers to fly and may lead to mortality. In four cases, individuals were observed displaying behaviour aimed at removing sticky seeds from the feathers of an entangled individual belonging to their group. Intriguingly, the rescuing individuals engaged in this behaviour despite potentially risking entanglement. To our knowledge, this is the first recorded case of rescue behaviour in birds.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Dyrcz ◽  
Chris Sharpe
Keyword(s):  




1983 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail R. Michener ◽  
Jan O. Murie


Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Quque ◽  
Matthieu Paquet ◽  
Sandrine Zahn ◽  
Frank Théron ◽  
Bruno Faivre ◽  
...  


2021 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Eva Trapote ◽  
Daniela Canestrari ◽  
Vittorio Baglione


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