SR11: Wright 2009- helping effort increases with relatedness in bell minors Flashcards
helping by non relatives requires what?
direct fitness benefits such as group augmentation
what were the 3 main things observed?
- visit rates
- load sizes
- prey types by breeding pairs and helpers
what is the positive effect?
of kinship as helpers assist at multiple nests
how did helpers and breeders regulate provisioning effort
by responding visit by visit to changes in nestling begging
what is helping behaviour consistent with?
adaptive cooperative investment in the brood and kin selected care by relatives
in cooperatively breeding birds what is explained by kin selection?
altruism of helping raise others offspring
what does the group augmentation principle state about if helpers help raise reproductive success?
the benefits of living in a larger group will favour the evolution of altruistic helping behavior
non relatives often help and what could it be that they gain?
future increases in survivorship/reproduction
what do the male and female helpers vary in?
relatedness, indirect fitness benefits, direct fitness benefits
what type of breeders are the bell miners known as?
obligate cooperative breeders
what does female dispersal result in?
male biased colony sex ratios
what do the coteries usually contain?
a few young females that have not dispersed and many males helping whilst waiting to breed
what does the fact there is a rapid turnover of breeding females mean about the helpers?
they aren’t direct descendents of adults they aid
what did they test for ?
direct and indirect fitness effects of helping from related and unrelated individuals
when does the number of bell miners per nest and provisioning effort reach its max?
when nestlings are 5-6 days old
how many helpers and how many nests were observed?
217 helpers
27 nests
how many helpers attended the average nest?
8.63