Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (22)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hatchwell, B. J.
Right arrow Articles by McGowan, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Hatchwell, B. J.
Right arrow Articles by McGowan, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Behavioral Ecology Vol. 15 No. 1: 1-10
© 2004 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Helpers increase long-term but not short-term productivity in cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits

Ben J. Hatchwell, Andrew F. Russell, Andrew D.C. MacColl, Douglas J. Ross, Martin K. Fowlie and Andrew McGowan

Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK

Address correspondence to B. Hatchwell. E-mail: b.hatchwell{at}sheffield.ac.uk. M.K.F. is now at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. A.M. is now at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK.

Helpers at the nest in the cooperative breeding system of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus exhibit kin preference in their helping behavior. The aim of this study was to use multivariate analyses to investigate whether helpers accrue indirect fitness benefits through their cooperation by increasing the productivity of relatives. All birds started each season breeding independently in pairs, but birds that failed in their own breeding attempt often redirected their care to help another pair provision their offspring. About half of all broods had one or more helpers, 86% of which were male. Provisioning rates increased and there was a corresponding increase in the mass of nestlings within broods as the number of helpers increased. Helpers had no significant short-term effect on productivity because nest predation, nestling survival, and brood size were unaffected by the presence of helpers. However, in the long term helpers had a highly significant effect on the recruitment of fledglings, the positive effect of helpers being linear within the range of helper numbers that we observed. We found no evidence to suggest that these results were confounded by the effects of individual or habitat quality. We conclude that long-tailed tits accrue indirect fitness benefits by helping kin. Nevertheless, the inclusive fitness benefit from helping is substantially lower than that of independent breeding, showing that helpers are making the best of a bad job.

Key words: Aegithalos caudatus, cooperative breeding, inclusive fitness, kin selection, long-tailed tit.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
S. P Sharp, M. Simeoni, and B. J Hatchwell
Dispersal of sibling coalitions promotes helping among immigrants in a cooperatively breeding bird
Proc R Soc B, September 22, 2008; 275(1647): 2125 - 2130.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
A.F Russell, N.E Langmore, J.L Gardner, and R.M Kilner
Maternal investment tactics in superb fairy-wrens
Proc R Soc B, January 7, 2008; 275(1630): 29 - 36.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 ScienceHome page
A. F. Russell, N. E. Langmore, A. Cockburn, L. B. Astheimer, and R. M. Kilner
Reduced Egg Investment Can Conceal Helper Effects in Cooperatively Breeding Birds
Science, August 17, 2007; 317(5840): 941 - 944.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
B. Taborsky, E. Skubic, and R. Bruintjes
Mothers adjust egg size to helper number in a cooperatively breeding cichlid
Behav. Ecol., July 1, 2007; 18(4): 652 - 657.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
A.F Russell, A.J Young, G Spong, N.R Jordan, and T.H Clutton-Brock
Helpers increase the reproductive potential of offspring in cooperative meerkats
Proc R Soc B, February 22, 2007; 274(1609): 513 - 520.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.