Cooperative Breeding and Group Structure in the Lake Tanganyika Cichlid <i>Neolamprologus savoryi</i>

Heg, Dik; Bachar, Zina; Taborsky, Michael

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2005.01135.x

Cited by 59 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…when the expected costs of control are low. These results are in line with other studies on multiple breeding in cooperative cichlids, both from the field and the laboratory (Limberger 1983;Schradin and Lamprecht 2000;Heg et al 2005). Territorial subordinates produced an equivalent number of broods as dominants did, and their eggs were less likely to get eaten compared to subordinates who could not secure an own breeding spot.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Heg

Hamilton

2008

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In group-living animals, dominants may suppress subordinate reproduction directly and indirectly, thereby skewing reproduction in their favour. In this study, we show experimentally that this ability ('power') is influenced by resource distribution and the body size difference between unrelated dominants and subordinates in the cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher. Reproduction was strongly skewed towards the dominant female, due to these females producing more and larger clutches and those clutches surviving egg eating better than those of subordinate females, but was not so when subordinates defended a patch. If breeding shelters were provided in two patches, subordinate females were more likely to exclusively defend a patch against the dominant female and breed, compared to when the same breeding resource was provided in one patch. Relatively large subordinate females were more likely to defend a patch and reproduce. Females also directly interfered with each other's reproduction by eating the competitors' eggs, at which dominants were more successful. Although dominant females benefited from subordinate females due to alloparental care and an increase in egg mass, they also showed costs due to reduced growth in the presence of subordinates. The results support the view that the dominant's power to control subordinate reproduction determines reproductive partitioning, in agreement with the predictions from tug-of-war models of reproductive skew.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Heg

Hamilton

2008

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Field data suggest female N. pulcher show distinct size hierarchies (D. Heg, unpublished data), very much like the congener Neolamprologus savoryi (Heg et al 2005a). These size hierarchies could be due to female strategic growth adjustments when they closely approach the size of their breeder female but may also be due to other processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This would explain the regular occurrence of polygyny in these cichlids, where breeder females may either defend parts of the same patch against each other or defend separate patches (e.g. Limberger 1983;Heg et al 2005a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Heg and Hamilton (2008) have shown that this is more difficult if the breeding resources are widely spaced, since this will make it more likely that the helper female will monopolise one such resource and breed independently. Polygynous females who defend separate territories do not help each other in raising their broods and usually have their own contingent of helpers (see for examples Limberger 1983;Heg et al 2005a), where only the largest helpers may be shared amongst multiple breeder females (personal observations).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Status-dependent and strategic growth adjustments in female cooperative cichlids

Heg

2010

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Male group-living cichlids show status and strategic adjustments in growth, but females appear not to show these growth adjustments. Here, an experimental study in the Lake Tanganyika cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher elaborates on these findings. Females did not show status-dependent growth: (1) Growth in females decelerated with body size but did not depend on social status (breeder or helper), and (2) female helpers did not increase their growth rate after becoming a breeder. Females showed limited evidence for strategic growth: (3) Female helpers did not significantly adjust their growth rate depending on the treatments (comparing female helpers living in groups with a small or a large breeder female); but within the small breeder female treatment, helper growth was significantly related to their body size difference (breeder size-helper size), suggesting a strong non-linear effect of size differences on female helper growth. I conclude that these female cichlids show no status-dependent growth and only strategic growth adjustments when the size difference between the helper female and her breeder female is particularly small.

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“…Nowadays, it is realized that queuelike systems range from queues for mating opportunities (Schwagmeyer and Parker 1987), social and breeding position in group-living and cooperativebreeding species (Wiley and Rabenold 1984;East and Hofer 2000;Heg et al 2005;Mitchell 2005), positions on the lek , or access to harems or colonies (Poston 1997;Voigt and Streich 2003) to queues for highquality territories (Zack and Stutchbury 1992;Ens et al 1995;Ekman et al 2001). Moreover, queuing processes seem to occur in a wide variety of taxa (birds, fish, mammals, and invertebrates) and life histories.…”

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confidence: 99%

Variation in Habitat Choice and Delayed Reproduction: Adaptive Queuing Strategies or Individual Quality Differences?

Pol¹,

Pen²,

Heg³

et al. 2007

The American Naturalist

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In most species, some individuals delay reproduction or occupy inferior breeding positions. The queue hypothesis tries to explain both patterns by proposing that individuals strategically delay breeding (queue) to acquire better breeding or social positions. In 1995, Ens, Weissing, and Drent addressed evolutionarily stable queuing strategies in situations with habitat heterogeneity. However, their model did not consider the non-mutually exclusive individual quality hypothesis, which suggests that some individuals delay breeding or occupy inferior breeding positions because they are poor competitors.Here we extend their model with individual differences in competitive abilities, which are probably plentiful in nature. We show that including even the smallest competitive asymmetries will result in individuals using queuing strategies completely different from those in models that assume equal competitors. Subsequently, we investigate how well our models can explain settlement patterns in the wild, using a long-term study on oystercatchers. This long-lived shorebird exhibits strong variation in age of first reproduction and territory quality. We show that only models that include competitive asymmetries can explain why oystercatchers' settlement patterns depend on natal origin. We conclude that predictions from queuing models are very sensitive to assumptions about competitive asym-

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Cooperative Breeding and Group Structure in the Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Neolamprologus savoryi

Cited by 59 publications

References 48 publications

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Status-dependent and strategic growth adjustments in female cooperative cichlids

Variation in Habitat Choice and Delayed Reproduction: Adaptive Queuing Strategies or Individual Quality Differences?

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