L7 - Alloparental Care Flashcards
Cooperative Breeding
- social system characterized by alloparental care
- offspring receive care not only from parents but from additional group members
Facultative Cooperative Breeding
-only occurs in certain circumstances
Obligate Cooperative Breeding
required for successful breeding
Allomaternal care
care/provisioning by anyone other than the mothers
‘polygynandrous’ groups
rear young at a single communal nest
Cooperative Breeders
- only alpha pair will breed
- females that never reproduce and lactate help care for the offspring
Eusocial
-queen is constantly pregnant
What conditions favor cooperative breeding?:
- altricial young
- remain at natal environment (delayed dispersal)
- high levels of relatedness
- live in relatively harsh environments where breeding solo is difficult
Widow inheritance or Levirate marriage
- women marry husbands brother if husband dies
- seen as harmful to women ; viewed as property, contributing to spread of HIV
- but also ensures orphaned children provided for
Parable Paternity
- belief children have multiple fathers
- anyone who has sex with mother around time of conception is considered father
- those with more than one father have increased survival
Grandmother Hypothesis
post-menopausal women better able to enhance their fitness by caring for their grandchildren instead of having additional children
Why a difference between maternal & paternal grandmothers?
- relatedness - paternity uncertainty means parents may favor daughter’s offspring
- spousal age gap - husbands parents older since man is older in marriage
- resource competition - paternal grandparents may be in direct competition in patrilocal populations
