How cooperatively breeding birds identify relatives and avoid incest: New insights into dispersal and kin recognition

@article{Riehl2015HowCB,
  title={How cooperatively breeding birds identify relatives and avoid incest: New insights into dispersal and kin recognition},
  author={Christina Riehl and Caitlin A. Stern},
  journal={BioEssays},
  year={2015},
  volume={37}
}
Cooperative breeding in birds typically occurs when offspring – usually males – delay dispersal from their natal group, remaining with the family to help rear younger kin. Sex‐biased dispersal is thought to have evolved in order to reduce the risk of inbreeding, resulting in low relatedness between mates and the loss of indirect fitness benefits for the dispersing sex. In this review, we discuss several recent studies showing that dispersal patterns are more variable than previously thought… Expand
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A hierarchical analysis of incest avoidance in a cooperative breeder
TLDR
Although recognition is required to avoid incest when pairing in winter groups or settling near home, female-biased dispersal reduces likelihood of incest to near zero, even when males disperse relatively short distances (e.g., 2 km) from where they were born. Expand
Cost, risk, and avoidance of inbreeding in a cooperatively breeding bird
TLDR
In long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus), a cooperative breeder that risks inbreeding by living alongside opposite-sex relatives, inbreeding carries fitness costs and is avoided by active kin discrimination during mate choice, indicating that inbreeding is costly. Expand
Investment patterns and kinship cues in a cooperatively breeding bird
TLDR
It is found that sealed-bid and conditional cooperation models are inappropriate to describe investment in riflemen, and possible reasons for this are discussed, and the validity of provisioning rate as a measure of food delivery in Riflemen is demonstrated. Expand
Kinship and Incest Avoidance Drive Patterns of Reproductive Skew in Cooperatively Breeding Birds
  • C. Riehl
  • Biology, Medicine
  • The American Naturalist
  • 2017
TLDR
Analysis of data from 83 species of cooperatively breeding birds finds that kinship within the breeding group is a powerful predictor of reproductive sharing across species, and suggests that incest avoidance, rather than suppression by dominant breeders, may be an important proximate mechanism limiting reproduction by subordinates. Expand
Helping decisions and kin recognition in long-tailed tits: is call similarity used to direct help towards kin?
TLDR
It is concluded that although vocalizations are an important part of the recognition system of long-tailed tits, discrimination is likely to be based on prior association and may involve a combination of vocal and non-vocal cues. Expand
Social dynamics in nonbreeding flocks of a cooperatively breeding bird: causes and consequences of kin associations
TLDR
It is concluded that long-tailed tits prefer to associate with kin when not breeding, and it is suggested that by doing so they gain either nepotistic benefits within flocks or future indirect benefits during breeding. Expand
Kin discrimination via odour in the cooperatively breeding banded mongoose
TLDR
It is found that adults show heightened behavioural responses to unfamiliar scents than to familiar (within-group) scents, and it is suggested that banded mongooses are either able to use an effective behavioural rule to identify likely relatives from within their group, or that phenotype matching is used in the context of within- group kin recognition but not extra-group kin recognition. Expand
Individuality, kin similarity and experimental playback of contact calls in cooperatively breeding riflemen
TLDR
It is concluded that zip calls are suitable kin recognition cues, but whether they are used as such remains unknown. Expand
Kith or Kin? Familiarity as a Cue to Kinship in Social Birds
Interacting with relatives provides opportunities for fitness benefits via kin-selected cooperation, but also creates potential costs through kin competition and inbreeding. Therefore, a mechanism… Expand
Mixed Mating in a Multi-Origin Population Suggests High Potential for Genetic Rescue in North Island Brown Kiwi, Apteryx mantelli
Reinforcement translocations are increasingly utilised in conservation with the goal of achieving genetic rescue. However, concerns regarding undesirable results, such as genetic homogenisation or… Expand
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