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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 19, 2009
Behavioral Ecology 2009 20(4):838-843; doi:10.1093/beheco/arp068
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Who Cares? Between-group variation in alloparental caregiving in sperm whales

Shane Geroa, Dan Engelhauptb, Luke Rendellc and Hal Whiteheada

a Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1 b Department of Biological Sciences, University of Durham, UK c School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK

Address correspondence to S. Gero. E-mail: sgero{at}dal.ca. D. Engelhaupt is now at PO Box 197, Picton, New Zealand.


  Abstract

Although the details of the various systems of allocare in primates, rodents, and carnivores have been well described, little is known about the existence of alloparental care in cetaceans. It is believed that the matrilineal social organization of the sperm whale functions to provide vigilant allomothers for calves at the surface while mothers make deep dives for food. Sperm whale females do have a system of allocare, but details are unknown. This study aimed to elucidate sperm whale allocare, in particular: who escorts whose calf and whether or not calves suckle from nonparent females. Using photo identification and behavioral calf follows, we examined patterns of adult–infant interactions for 23 sperm whale calves in the Sargasso and Caribbean Seas. Although multiple individuals of both sexes escorted the calves, the system of escorting differed between the 2 sites. For all calves studied in the Caribbean, we found that 1 female provided most of the allocare but did not nurse the calf, whereas in the Sargasso, multiple females provided care for, and nursed, the young. We discuss differences between populations that may have resulted in the observed differences in these 2 systems of allocare and how these findings fit with current hypotheses on the roles of kin selection and reciprocal altruism in cooperative care in mammals.

Key words: alloparental care, allosuckling, cetaceans, escort, mother–calf, Physeter macrocephalus, social structure, sperm whale.

Received 16 July 2007; revised 13 April 2009; accepted 16 April 2009.


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