期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 274, 期 1609, 页码 513-520出版社
ROYAL SOCIETY
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3698
关键词
early conditions; helper effects; fitness; kin selection; lifetime reproductive success
资金
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/E013481/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/E013481/1] Funding Source: UKRI
In both animal and human societies, individuals may forego personal reproduction and provide care to the offspring of others. Studies aimed at investigating the adaptive nature of such cooperative breeding systems in vertebrates typically calculate helper 'fitness' from relationships of helper numbers and offspring survival to independence. The aim of this study is to use observations and supplemental feeding experiments in cooperatively breeding meerkats, Suricata suricatta, to investigate whether helpers influence the long-term reproductive potential of offspring during adulthood. We show that helpers have a significant and positive influence on the probability that offspring gain direct reproductive success in their lifetimes. This effect arises because helpers both reduce the age at which offspring begin to reproduce as subordinates and increase the probability that they will compete successfully for alpha rank. Supplemental feeding experiments confirm the causality of these results. Our results suggest that one can neither discount the significance of helper effects when none is found nor necessarily estimate accurately the fitness benefit that helpers accrue, unless their effects on offspring are considered in the long term.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据