Inclusive fitness benefits of scent–marking predators

Cooperation among non-kin is well documented in humans and widespread in non-human animals, but explaining the occurrence of cooperation in the absence of inclusive fitness benefits has proven a significant challenge. Current theoretical explanations converge on a single point: cooperators can prevail when they cluster in social space. However, we know very little about the real-world mechanisms that drive such clustering, particularly in systems where cognitive limitations make it unlikely that mechanisms such as score keeping and reputation are at play. Here, we show that Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) use a ‘walk away’ strategy, a simple social heuristic by which assortment by cooperativeness can come about among mobile agents. Guppies cooperate during predator inspection and we found that when experiencing defection in this context, individuals prefer to move to a new social environment, despite having no prior information about this new social group. Our results provide evidence in non-human animals that individuals use a simple social partner updating strategy in response to defection, supporting theoretical work applying heuristics to understanding the proximate mechanisms underpinning the evolution of cooperation among non-kin.

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Do networks of social interactions reflect patterns of kinship?

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/czoolo/58.2.319 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 319-328 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Joah R. Madden ◽

Johanna F. Nielsen ◽

Tim H. Clutton-Brock

Keyword(s):

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Positive Association ◽

Temporal Association ◽

Kinship Networks ◽

Suricata Suricatta ◽

Direct Benefits ◽

Dominance Interactions ◽

Kin Structure ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

Close Relatives

Abstract The underlying kin structure of groups of animals may be glimpsed from patterns of spatial position or temporal association between individuals, and is presumed to facilitate inclusive fitness benefits. Such structure may be evident at a finer, behavioural, scale with individuals preferentially interacting with kin. We tested whether kin structure within groups of meerkats Suricata suricatta matched three forms of social interaction networks: grooming, dominance or foraging competitions. Networks of dominance interactions were positively related to networks of kinship, with close relatives engaging in dominance interactions with each other. This relationship persisted even after excluding the breeding dominant pair and when we restricted the kinship network to only include links between first order kin, which are most likely to be able to discern kin through simple rules of thumb. Conversely, we found no relationship between kinship networks and either grooming networks or networks of foraging competitions. This is surprising because a positive association between kin in a grooming network, or a negative association between kin in a network of foraging competitions offers opportunities for inclusive fitness benefits. Indeed, the positive association between kin in a network of dominance interactions that we did detect does not offer clear inclusive fitness benefits to group members. We conclude that kin structure in behavioural interactions in meerkats may be driven by factors other than indirect fitness benefits, and that networks of cooperative behaviours such as grooming may be driven by direct benefits accruing to individuals perhaps through mutualism or manipulation [Current Zoology 58 (2): 319–328, 2012].

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Recognition of nestmate eggs in the ant Formica fusca is based on queen derived cues

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/czoolo/60.1.131 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 60 (1) ◽

pp. 131-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Heikki Helanterä ◽

Stephen J. Martin ◽

Francis L.W. Ratnieks

Keyword(s):

Nestmate Recognition ◽

Social Insect ◽

Chemical Cues ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Social Parasite ◽

Egg Recognition ◽

Formica Fusca ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

The Right

Abstract Inclusive fitness benefits depend on recognizing the right individuals to interact with. Social insect nests protect themselves from non-kin intruders through nestmate recognition based on chemical cues. The recognition cues on adult individuals are from a mixture of genetic and environmental sources, but the ontogeny and use of recognition cues on eggs has not been previously assessed. We studied recognition by workers of eggs that were either nestmates or non-nestmates. and the ontogeny of recognition cues on eggs in the ant Formica fusca, a species with precise egg recognition abilities. Workers were able to discriminate among freshly laid eggs with no nest derived cues on them, and the egg surface chemicals varied among nests in these eggs, suggesting that queen derived cues are used in nestmate recognition. The results are discussed in the light of their implications on deceptive social parasite strategies and within colony conflicts.

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Sex-specific associative learning cues and inclusive fitness benefits in the Seychelles warbler

Journal of Evolutionary Biology ◽

10.1046/j.1420-9101.2003.00592.x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. 854-861 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

D. S. Richardson ◽

T. Burke ◽

J. Komdeur

Keyword(s):

Associative Learning ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Seychelles Warbler ◽

Fitness Benefits

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Why inclusive fitness can make it adaptive to produce less fit extra-pair offspring

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2014.2716 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 282 (1801) ◽

pp. 20142716 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Jussi Lehtonen ◽

Hanna Kokko

Keyword(s):

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Reproductive Season ◽

Breeding Systems ◽

Social Partner ◽

Social Monogamy ◽

Monogamous Species ◽

Social Partners ◽

Socially Monogamous ◽

Fitness Benefits

Social monogamy predominates in avian breeding systems, but most socially monogamous species engage in promiscuous extra-pair copulations (EPCs). The reasons behind this remain debated, and recent empirical work has uncovered patterns that do not seem to fit existing hypotheses. In particular, some results seem to contradict the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis: females can prefer extra-pair partners that are more closely related to them than their social partners, and extra-pair young can have lower fitness than within-pair young. Motivated by these studies, we show that such results can become explicable when an asymmetry in inbreeding tolerance between monogamy and polygamy is extended to species that combine both strategies within a single reproductive season. Under fairly general conditions, it can be adaptive for a female to choose an unrelated social partner, but inbreed with an extra-pair partner. Inbreeding depression is compensated for by inclusive fitness benefits, which are only fully realized in EPCs. We also show that if a female has already formed a suboptimal social bond, there are scenarios where it is beneficial to engage in EPCs with less related males, and others where EPCs with more related males increase her inclusive fitness. This has implications for detecting general relatedness or fitness trends when averaged over several species.

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No support for relatedness and kin selection to explain high rates of conspecific brood parasitism in colonial Red-breasted Mergansers

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/cjz-2020-0251 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kristen Noel ◽

Rodger Titman ◽

Shawn R. Craik

Keyword(s):

Kin Selection ◽

Brood Parasitism ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Conspecific Brood Parasitism ◽

Brood Parasites ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

Small Decline ◽

Diurnal Period

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) has been observed in approximately half of all species of waterfowl, a philopatric group in which breeding females are frequently locally related. It has been suggested that kin selection can facilitate the evolution of CBP in waterfowl via fitness benefits for the host and parasite. One model demonstrates that discrimination of related and unrelated parasites by the host must be sufficient for kinship to promote CBP, provided that costs of brood parasitism to host fitness are sufficiently low. We parameterized the model using demographic data and behavioural observations from a population of colonial Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator (Linnaeus, 1758)) in which 47% of nests were parasitized by conspecifics. The costs of 1-3 foreign eggs to host hatching success were generally small (decline of 1.8% per additional egg). Nevertheless, model outputs revealed that brood parasites maximize their inclusive fitness by avoiding nests of relatives, primarily because of constraints on a host’s ability to detect parasites at the nest. Indeed, hosts spent <8% of the diurnal period at the nest during egg laying, a period when parasite activity is greatest. It is thus highly unlikely that relatedness and kin selection promote brood parasitism in this population.

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Postreproductive killer whale grandmothers improve the survival of their grandoffspring

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1903844116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (52) ◽

pp. 26669-26673 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Stuart Nattrass ◽

Darren P. Croft ◽

Samuel Ellis ◽

Michael A. Cant ◽

Michael N. Weiss ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Killer Whale ◽

Mammalian Species ◽

Life History Trait ◽

Killer Whales ◽

Reproductive Conflict ◽

Significant Survival ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

Difficult Times

Understanding why females of some mammalian species cease ovulation prior to the end of life is a long-standing interdisciplinary and evolutionary challenge. In humans and some species of toothed whales, females can live for decades after stopping reproduction. This unusual life history trait is thought to have evolved, in part, due to the inclusive fitness benefits that postreproductive females gain by helping kin. In humans, grandmothers gain inclusive fitness benefits by increasing their number of surviving grandoffspring, referred to as the grandmother effect. Among toothed whales, the grandmother effect has not been rigorously tested. Here, we test for the grandmother effect in killer whales, by quantifying grandoffspring survival with living or recently deceased reproductive and postreproductive grandmothers, and show that postreproductive grandmothers provide significant survival benefits to their grandoffspring above that provided by reproductive grandmothers. This provides evidence of the grandmother effect in a nonhuman menopausal species. By stopping reproduction, grandmothers avoid reproductive conflict with their daughters, and offer increased benefits to their grandoffspring. The benefits postreproductive grandmothers provide to their grandoffspring are shown to be most important in difficult times where the salmon abundance is low to moderate. The postreproductive grandmother effect we report, together with the known costs of late-life reproduction in killer whales, can help explain the long postreproductive life spans of resident killer whales.

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Male relatedness, lekking behavior patterns, and the potential for kin selection in a Neotropical hummingbird

The Auk ◽

10.1093/auk/ukz038 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 136 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Clementina González ◽

Juan Francisco Ornelas

Keyword(s):

Reproductive Success ◽

Kin Selection ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Isolation By Distance ◽

Behavior Patterns ◽

Song Type ◽

Selection Theory ◽

Indirect Fitness ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

Gain Access

AbstractSeveral models have been proposed to explain the evolution of leks, both in terms of direct or indirect fitness benefits, and in survival. According to kin selection theory, male skewed reproductive success leads unsuccessful males to join successful relatives to increase their inclusive fitness, because their genes would be transmitted indirectly to the next generation. Wedge-tailed Sabrewing (Campylopterus curvipennis) is a hummingbird species whose males congregate at leks, in which spatially clustered males sing a particular song with marked differences among neighboring males (song neighborhoods). The maintenance of song neighborhoods presumably depends on juvenile newcomers copying the song type of their neighbors when they establish within a lek, and their acceptance could be more likely if a relative has already settled down in a territory, which in turn could offer fitness benefits explained by kin selection theory. To investigate the potential for kin selection in this species, we genotyped 126 hummingbirds at 10 microsatellite loci and estimated pairwise relatedness among males at 6 leks and in 4 song neighborhoods within 1 focal lek. Within leks, most males were unrelated and only a few were relatives. Moreover, even though relatedness within leks was higher than between leks, it was not higher than 0, which is likely due to isolation by distance. Our results do not support the idea of kin selection as an important force acting on the formation of leks in this species. Additionally, we found no evidence for kin clustering within song neighborhoods, suggesting that juveniles attempting to settle in a lek have to learn the song of the neighborhood (regardless of their kinship) to gain access to territories.

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O brother, where art thou? Investment in siblings for inclusive fitness benefits, not father absence, predicts earlier age at menarche

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2017.0464 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 20170464 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Daniel Smith

Keyword(s):

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Human Life ◽

Life History Evolution ◽

Father Absence ◽

Alternative Interpretation ◽

Reproductive Age ◽

Independent Effect ◽

Age At Menarche ◽

Parents And Children ◽

Fitness Benefits

Numerous studies have indicated that father absence is associated with earlier age at menarche, with many evolutionary theories assuming that father absence is a causal factor that accelerates reproductive development. However, an alternative interpretation suggests that offspring may reproduce earlier in the presence of half- or step-siblings as the indirect fitness benefits to investing in them are lower, relative to delaying reproduction and investing in full siblings. From this perspective, father absence may perform no causal role in facilitating the onset of menarche. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, I find that individuals with only half- or step-siblings reach reproductive age earlier than those with only full siblings, with no independent effect of father absence. These results suggest that inclusive fitness benefits to investing in siblings, rather than father absence, may predict variation in age at menarche. These results provide a greater understanding of the adaptive mechanisms involved in reproductive decision-making, as well as potential implications for human life-history evolution and cooperative breeding more broadly.

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Kin selection and polygyny: can relatedness lower the polygyny threshold?

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.140409 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (6) ◽

pp. 140409 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Gaute Grønstøl ◽

Donald Blomqvist ◽

Angela Pauliny ◽

Richard H. Wagner

Keyword(s):

Dna Fingerprinting ◽

Kin Selection ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Nest Defence ◽

Natal Philopatry ◽

Vanellus Vanellus ◽

Indirect Fitness ◽

Fitness Benefits ◽

Breeding Resources

Resource polygyny incurs costs of having to share breeding resources for female breeders. When breeding with a relative, however, such costs may be lessened by indirect fitness benefits through kin selection, while benefits from mutualistic behaviour, such as communal defence, may increase. If so, females should be less resistant to sharing a territory with a related female than with a non-related one. We investigated whether kin selection may lower the threshold of breeding polygynously, predicting a closer relatedness between polygynous females breeding on the same territory than between females breeding on different territories. Northern lapwings, Vanellus vanellus , are suitable for testing this hypothesis as they are commonly polygynous, both sexes take part in nest defence, and the efficiency of nest defence increases with the number of defenders. Using an index of relatedness derived from DNA fingerprinting, we found that female lapwings that shared polygynous dyads were on average twice as closely related as were random females. Furthermore, relatedness did not correlate with distance between breeders, indicating that our findings cannot be explained by natal philopatry alone. Our results suggest that the polygyny threshold in lapwings may be lowered by inclusive fitness advantages of kin selection.

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