Reproductive parasitism of broodcare helpers in a cooperatively breeding fish

Dierkes, Petra; Taborsky, Michael; Köhler, Uwe

doi:10.1093/beheco/10.5.510

Cited by 116 publications

(145 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Therefore, the cooperative behaviour experimentally elicited in this study is of crucial importance for a test of the pay-to-stay hypothesis, as alloparental egg-care does not provide immediate fitness benefits to unrelated helpers, whereas it involves clear costs 36,37 . As this helping effort is hence altruistic, it can be selected for only if helpers receive other fitness benefits in return, which result from the tolerance in a safe territory that provides them with access to vital resources such as shelter and protection 19,29,48 , and opportunities to share in reproduction 49,50 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

et al. 2013

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Alloparental brood care, where individuals help raising the offspring of others, is generally believed to be favoured by high degrees of relatedness between helpers and recipients. Here we show that in cooperatively breeding cichlids, unrelated subordinate females provide more alloparental care than related ones when kinship between dominant and subordinate group members is experimentally manipulated. In addition, unrelated helpers increased alloparental care after we simulated egg cannibalism by helpers, an effect not shown by related helpers. By supporting predictions of pay-to-stay theory, these results suggest that in Neolamprologus pulcher, reciprocal commodity trading is important for the decision of subordinates to invest in care of the dominants' offspring.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

et al. 2013

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“…This is because social strategies could have a major influence on reproductive success, as subordinates will try to combine mating success with avoidance of eviction from the group as a consequence of their mating attempts. Such a situation exists in the cichlid fish species with helpers and in the extended family groups of N. multifasciatus, and the functional aspects of these conflicts are well studied (Taborsky 1984(Taborsky , 1985Dierkes et al 1999). Subordinates' frequent submissive behaviours towards high-ranking group members (Kohler 1997) could be seen as a behavioural adaptation to manipulate the decisions of group members.…”

Section: Living In Individualised Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

Bshary

Wickler²,

Fricke³

2001

Anim.Cogn.

245

166

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We provide selected examples from the fish literature of phenomena found in fish that are currently being examined in discussions of cognitive abilities and evolution of neocortex size in primates. In the context of social intelligence, we looked at living in individualised groups and corresponding social strategies, social learning and tradition, and co-operative hunting. Regarding environmental intelligence, we searched for examples concerning special foraging skills, tool use, cognitive maps, memory, anti-predator behaviour, and the manipulation of the environment. Most phenomena of interest for primatologists are found in fish as well. We therefore conclude that more detailed studies on decision rules and mechanisms are necessary to test for differences between the cognitive abilities of primates and other taxa. Cognitive research can benefit from future fish studies in three ways: first, as fish are highly variable in their ecology, they can be used to determine the specific ecological factors that select for the evolution of specific cognitive abilities. Second, for the same reason they can be used to investigate the link between cognitive abilities and the enlargement of specific brain areas. Third, decision rules used by fish could be used as 'null-hypotheses' for primatologists looking at how monkeys might make their decisions. Finally, we propose a variety of fish species that we think are most promising as study objects.

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“…Male helpers may share paternity with the breeder male (Dierkes et al, 1999), and Oliveira et al (2003) reported similar levels of testosterone (T) and 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) in both breeder males and helper males in this species. Thus, in N. pulcher, there is a potential for conflict between helpers and breeders about the possible participation of helpers in reproduction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Thus, in N. pulcher, there is a potential for conflict between helpers and breeders about the possible participation of helpers in reproduction. Breeder males threaten helpers with aggression and the risk of expulsion (Dierkes et al, 1999;Skubic et al, 2004), while helpers attempt to appease the breeders and reduce the risk of expulsion from the territory by helping and displaying submissive behaviour, depending on environmental constraints (Taborsky, 1985;Balshine-Earn et al, 1998;Heg et al, 2004a;. Buchner et al (2004) found higher cortisol (F) plasma levels in dominant individuals than in subordinates in N. pulcher, confirming a general rule found in many mammal and bird societies, where paternity is shared by dominants and subordinates and the social situation is therefore stressful for the dominants (Schoech et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The delicate social balance between breeders and helpers in N. pulcher is maintained because the benefits of group living outweigh the costs of competition among group members (Taborsky, 1984(Taborsky, , 1985Dierkes et al, 1999;Brouwer et al, 2005;Heg et al, 2005). N. pulcher is an excellent model system to study the complex relationships between social structure, behaviour and hormone levels, because it allows experimental manipulations of social structure under controlled conditions (Taborsky, 1984(Taborsky, , 1985Heg et al, 2004b;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between social status, behaviour, growth and steroids in male helpers and breeders of a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Bender

Heg

Hamilton

et al. 2006

Hormones and Behavior

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We tested whether subordinate helper males of the Lake Tanganyika cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher show elevated excretion levels of the stress hormone cortisol and reduced levels of 11-ketotestosterone and testosterone when living in groups with a small breeder male, compared to similar helper males living in groups with a large breeder male, in a full-factorial repeated measures experimental design. We also measured the same hormones in breeder males with and without helper males. Previous research showed that the size difference between large male helpers and male breeders in groups of this species influences behaviour and growth decisions. Contrary to our expectation, no effect of the size-difference between helper males and breeder males on helper hormone levels was detected. Furthermore, helper males had similar hormone excretion levels to those of size-matched breeder males without helpers, and to small breeder males. There was no influence of egg laying on breeder male and helper hormone levels during the experiment. Interestingly, all three hormone levels were significantly lower in helpers showing elevated levels of submissive behaviour towards the breeders, independently of the size of the breeder males. The low cortisol levels suggest that helper males can successfully reduce stress by appeasing breeder males through submission. Furthermore, helper males showing a high level of submissive behaviour had lower levels of androgens than less submissive helpers, suggesting a lower reproductive potential in submissive helpers. We propose that helper submission may be used as an honest signal of reduced interest in reproduction towards the breeder male in this species.

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Reproductive parasitism of broodcare helpers in a cooperatively breeding fish

Cited by 116 publications

References 31 publications

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

The relationship between social status, behaviour, growth and steroids in male helpers and breeders of a cooperatively breeding cichlid

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