Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds

2004/04/22 by Walter D. Koenig, Janis L. 1955- Dickinson · 6 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant and animal studies #Genetic diversity and population structure #Animal Behavior and Reproduction

paper · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511606816

openalex publication_date 2004/04/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Cooperative breeders are species in which more than a pair of individuals assist in the production of young. Cooperative breeding is found in only a few hundred bird species world-wide, and understanding this often strikingly altruistic behaviour has remained an important challenge in behavioural ecology for over 30 years. This book highlights the theoretical, empirical and technical advances that have taken place in the field of cooperative breeding research since the publication of the seminal work Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Long-term Studies of Behavior and Ecology (1990, HB ISBN 0521 372984, PB ISBN 0521 378907). Organized conceptually, special attention is given to ways in which cooperative breeders have proved fertile subjects for testing modern advances to classic evolutionary problems including those of sexual selection, sex-ratio manipulation, life-history evolution, partitioning of reproduction and incest avoidance. It will be of interest to both students and researchers interested in behaviour and ecology.

Citations

• The Biology of the Naked Mole-Rat
• The Social Organisation of Antelope in Relation To Their Ecology
• Sex-Ratio Variation in Marsupials
• Communal hunting and pack size in African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus
• The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I
• Mating systems, philopatry and dispersal in birds and mammals
• Individual Contributions To Cooperative Behaviour in the Acorn Woodpecker: Effects of Reproductive Status, Sex, and Group Size
• Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form
• A phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds: taxonomic and biogeographic implications of an analysis of nuclear DNA sequence data
• Breeding Together: Kin Selection and Mutualism in Cooperative Vertebrates
• Parent-Offspring Conflict
• THE INCUBATION PATTERNS OF BIRDS.
• Offspring food allocation by parents and helpers in a cooperative mammal

Cited by

• Dispersal and the evolution of sex differences in cooperation in cooperatively breeding birds and mammals
• Direct fitness benefits of delayed dispersal in the cooperatively breeding red wolf (Canis rufus)
• Family living among birds
• Prevalence of different modes of parental care in birds
• Delayed juvenile dispersal and monogamy, but no cooperative breeding in white-breasted mesites (Mesitornis variegata)
• Dusky woodswallow [wikipedia]