scholarly journals Lifetime reproductive benefits of cooperative polygamy vary for males and females in the acorn woodpecker ( Melanerpes formicivorus )

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1957) ◽  
pp. 20210579
Author(s):  
Sahas Barve ◽  
Christina Riehl ◽  
Eric L. Walters ◽  
Joseph Haydock ◽  
Hannah L. Dugdale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Cooperative Strategies ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Direct Fitness ◽  
Melanerpes Formicivorus ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Acorn Woodpeckers ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

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.

scholarly journals Live long and prosper: durable benefits of early-life care in banded mongooses

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1770) ◽  
pp. 20180114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma I. K. Vitikainen ◽  
Faye J. Thompson ◽  
Harry H. Marshall ◽  
Michael A. Cant
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Developmental Effects ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Kin selection theory defines the conditions for which altruism or ‘helping’ can be favoured by natural selection. Tests of this theory in cooperatively breeding animals have focused on the short-term benefits to the recipients of help, such as improved growth or survival to adulthood. However, research on early-life effects suggests that there may be more durable, lifelong fitness impacts to the recipients of help, which in theory should strengthen selection for helping. Here, we show in cooperatively breeding banded mongooses ( Mungos mungo ) that care received in the first 3 months of life has lifelong fitness benefits for both male and female recipients. In this species, adult helpers called ‘escorts’ form exclusive one-to-one caring relationships with specific pups (not their own offspring), allowing us to isolate the effects of being escorted on later reproduction and survival. Pups that were more closely escorted were heavier at sexual maturity, which was associated with higher lifetime reproductive success for both sexes. Moreover, for female offspring, lifetime reproductive success increased with the level of escorting received per se , over and above any effect on body mass. Our results suggest that early-life social care has durable benefits to offspring of both sexes in this species. Given the well-established developmental effects of early-life care in laboratory animals and humans, we suggest that similar effects are likely to be widespread in social animals more generally. We discuss some of the implications of durable fitness benefits for the evolution of intergenerational helping in cooperative animal societies, including humans. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine’.

Body size is associated with yearling breeding and extra-pair mating in the Island Scrub-Jay

The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A Desrosiers ◽  
Kathryn M Langin ◽  
W Chris Funk ◽  
T Scott Sillett ◽  
Scott A Morrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Large Body Size ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Fitness Advantage ◽  
Breeding Territory ◽  
Pair Mating ◽  
Extra Pair Mating

Abstract Large body size is an important determinant of individual fitness in many animal species, especially in island systems where habitat saturation may result in strong intraspecific competition for mates and breeding territories. Here we show that large body size is associated with benefits to yearling breeding and extra-pair mating in the Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), endemic to Santa Cruz Island, California. This species is ~20% larger than its mainland congener, consistent with the island syndrome, indicating that body size may be a trait under selection. From 2009 to 2013, we quantified the reproductive success of a marked population of Island Scrub-Jays, tracked which yearlings acquired a breeding territory and bred, and measured the occurrence of extra-pair paternity. Two potential contributors to fitness were positively related to body size. Larger yearling males were more likely to breed, possibly due to greater behavioral dominance during aggressive encounters. Larger males were also less likely to lose paternity to extra-pair males and, anecdotally, extra-pair males were larger than the social male cuckolded. This study provides evidence that larger males may have a fitness advantage over smaller males by breeding earlier and avoiding paternity loss, but estimates of lifetime reproductive success are ultimately needed for Island Scrub-Jays and other long-lived species.

Individual Contributions To Cooperative Behaviour in the Acorn Woodpecker: Effects of Reproductive Status, Sex, and Group Size

Behaviour ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 95 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 290-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald L. Mumme ◽  
Alan De Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Strong Positive Relationship ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
Melanerpes Formicivorus ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Acorn Woodpeckers ◽  
The Individual

AbstractAcorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) are communal breeders that live in permanently territorial family groups of 2-15 individuals. All group members participate in several forms of cooperative behaviour, which we define as the investment of resources in a common interest shared by other group members (CHASE, 1980). Acorn woodpecker group interests include the caching of acorns in a specialized storage tree (the granary), maintenance of the granary, and defence of the granary against intra- and interspecific intruders. Because of a strong positive relationship between the availability of stored acorns and group reproductive success, investments in acorn storage, granary maintenance, and granary defence have a direct positive effect on the individual fitness of breeders. Non-breeding helpers, however, do not realize a direct reproductive reward, and therefore profit less directly from investment in these forms of cooperative behaviour. Thus, we predicted that breeders should invest more heavily in cooperative behaviour than should helpers. The prediction was upheld: for nearly every form of cooperative behaviour examined, breeders contribute significantly more than do helpers. On the other hand, while established breeders only rarely intrude on neighbouring territories, nonreproductive helpers frequently do so. These dispersal "forays" constitute attempts by helpers to locate ecologically restricted breeding vacancies. The effect that group size has on individual contributions to cooperative behaviour is unclear. Individual rates of acorn storage decrease significantly with increasing group size, but granary attendance and granary maintenance do not. Male and female acorn woodpeckers do not differ in their contributions to acorn storage, granary maintenance, or interspecific defence. Females, however, play a significantly greater role in intraspecific defence because of a female-biased intruder sex ratio and sex-specific defensive behaviour.

INFLUENCE OF AGE AND DISPERSAL ON REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS OF CLIFF SWALLOWS (PETROCHELIDON PYRRHONATA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey N. Johnson ◽  
Karl L. Kosciuch ◽  
Patricia J. Sikes ◽  
Keith A. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Petrochelidon Pyrrhonota ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Potential Population ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Breeding Seasons ◽  
Low Rate

Abstract We examined age-related reproductive success and the short-term consequences of dispersal by known-aged Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) breeding in Texas from 1975–86. Clutch size increased with age in females, and males and females ≥2 yrs old fledged more young than yearlings. Sixteen percent (76/463) of birds dispersed between breeding seasons and we observed female-biased dispersal. Birds that dispersed to a different colony at age 2 produced 0.91 fewer fledglings post-dispersal compared to the previous year, and birds that dispersed at age 3 produced 0.34 more fledglings post-dispersal compared to the previous year; females experienced greater benefits than males when they dispersed at age 3 yrs. Younger dispersers incur short-term costs which might have important consequences for lifetime reproductive success for a short-lived passerine. However, potential population-level consequences from dispersal costs is likely minimal given the low rate of dispersal we observed.

scholarly journals Consequences of combining life-history traits with sex-specific differences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vandana Revathi Venkateswaran ◽  
Olivia Roth ◽  
Chaitanya S. Gokhale
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Fitness Components ◽  
Adult Sex Ratio ◽  
Males And Females

Males and females evolved distinct life-history strategies, reflected in diverse life-history traits, summarized as sexual dimorphism. Life-history traits are highly interlinked. The sex that allocates more resources towards offspring is expected to increase its life span, and this might require an efficient immune system. However, the other sex might allocate its resources towards ornamentation, and this might have immunosuppressive effects. Activity of immune response may not be specific to the sex that produces the eggs but could correlate with the amount of parental investment given. Informed by experimental data, we designed a theoretical framework that combines multiple life-history traits. We disentangled sex-biased life-history strategies from a particular sex to include species with reversed sex-roles, and male parental investment. We computed the lifetime reproductive success from the fitness components arising from diverse sex-biased life-history traits, and observed a strong bias in adult sex ratio depending on sex-specific resource allocation towards life-history traits. Overall, our work provides a generalized method to combine various life-history traits with sex-specific differences to calculate the lifetime reproductive success. This was used to explain certain empirical observations as a consequence of sexual dimorphism in life-history traits.

scholarly journals Birds with high lifetime reproductive success experience increased telomere loss

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20180637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Sudyka ◽  
Aneta Arct ◽  
Szymon M. Drobniak ◽  
Lars Gustafsson ◽  
Mariusz Cichoń
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Attrition Rate ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Telomere Attrition ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Success Experience ◽  
Blue Tits ◽  
Telomere Dynamics ◽  
Telomere Erosion

Lifetime reproductive success (LRS) is what counts in terms of evolution, but investments in reproduction entail costs for an organism. The idea that telomere dynamics may be shaped in response to such costs is already established; however, we still lack information on whether this relation translates to overall fitness. Here, we quantified LRS (number of fledged young) and longitudinal telomere dynamics of small passerine birds—the blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus ). We found that individual telomere erosion rate was positively associated with lifetime fledgling number. Birds with more fledged young experienced increased telomere attrition. We show that telomere attrition rate, but not telomere length, is related to individual fitness and suggest that telomere dynamics may underlie reproductive costs experienced by animals as a consequence of prioritizing their lifetime fitness. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to provide evidence that more pronounced telomere erosion is associated with higher fitness gain.

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