期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 288, 期 1945, 页码 -出版社
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2104
关键词
group size; cooperative breeding; free riding; inequality; meerkat; animal cooperation
资金
- Blavatnik fellowship
- Rothschild fellowship
- European Research Council [742808, 294494]
- Human Frontier Science Program [RGP0051/2017]
- University of Zurich
- MAVA foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- NERC [NE/G006822/1] Funding Source: UKRI
The study found that in larger groups, inequality in contributions to cooperative activities and the frequency of free riding increased. This was partly due to increased differences in contributions between helpers of different sex and age categories in larger groups. The increase in inequality in contributions was associated with reductions in total provisioning conducted by the group, which in turn led to reductions in pup growth and survival.
In cooperatively breeding species where rearing effort is shared among multiple group members, increases in group size typically reduce average per capita contributions to offspring care by all group members (load-lightening) but it is not known how changes in group size affect the distribution of workload among group members. The socioeconomic collective action theory suggests that, in larger groups, the incentives for free riding are stronger, leading to greater inequalities in work division among group members. Here, we use the Gini index to measure inequality at the group level in the contributions of helpers to three different cooperative behaviours (babysitting, pup-provisioning and raised guarding) in groups of varying size in wild Kalahari meerkats (Suricata suricatta). In larger groups, inequality in helpers' contributions to cooperative activities and the frequency of free riding both increased. Elevated levels of inequality were generated partly as a result of increased differences in contributions to cooperative activities between helpers in different sex and age categories in larger groups. After controlling for the positive effect of group size on total provisioning, increasing levels of inequality in contributions were associated with reductions in total pup-provisioning conducted by the group. Reductions in total pup-provisioning were, in turn, associated with reductions in the growth and survival of pups (but pup growth and survival were not directly affected by inequality in provisioning). Our results support the prediction of collective action theory described above and show how the Gini index can be used to investigate the distribution of cooperative behaviour within the group.
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