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© 1995 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Facultative dispersal by juvenile males in the cooperative stripe-backed wren

Walter H. Piper, Patricia G. Parker and Kerry N. Rabenold

Department of Biological Sciences, Lilly Hall, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA W. H. Piper is now at the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20008, USA. P. G. Parker is now at the Department of Zoology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1293, USA.

ABSTRACT

We present genetic and demographic data documenting juvenile dispersal in the cooperatively breeding stripe-backed wren (Campylorhynchus nuchalis) of Venezuela. Parentage and DNA fragment-sharing analyses revealed 12 cases in which juveniles were unrelated to other group members. Of these 12 foreign juveniles, (1) all were males, (2) eight of 12 had been found with breeding pairs lacking helpers rather than with groups containing helpers, and (3) four out of seven of those observed as adults courted or sired offspring with the dominant females in their new groups despite the strong incest avoidance of this species. Furthermore, juvenile males had a significant tendency to disappear from natal groups in their first year, and singleton juveniles observed with pairs after the breeding season were mostly males. These data support the hypothesis that foreign juveniles were dispersers from intact groups and not products of conspecific brood parasitism or adoption following group dissolution. We suggest that unassisted pairs might accept juvenile males into their groups as helpers to increase their future reproductive success and that dispersers themselves might leave large natal groups in which their helping is superfluous to join small groups of nonrelatives in which they might soon reproduce.

Key words: Campyorhynchus, cooperative breeding, demographic data, DNA fingerprinting, helping behavior, juvenile dispersal, natal dispersal. [Behav Ecol 6:337–342 (1995)].


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