Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates: Studies of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Walter D. Koenig · Janis L. Dickinson

01/2016 · Cambridge University Press

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Cooperative breeders are species in which individuals beyond a pair assist in the production of young in a single brood or litter. Although relatively rare, cooperative breeding is widespread taxonomically and continues to pose challenges to our understanding of the evolution of cooperation and altruistic behavior. Bringing together long-term studies of cooperatively breeding birds, mammals, and fish, this volume provides a synthesis of current studies in the field. The chapters are organised by individual studies of particular species or (in the case of mole-rats) two closely related cooperatively breeding species. Each focuses not only on describing behavior and ecology but also on testing evolutionary hypotheses for the form and function of the diverse and extraordinary cooperative breeding lifestyles that have been discovered. This unique and comprehensive text will be of interest to graduate students and researchers of behavioral ecology and the evolution of cooperation.

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Walter D. Koenig is Senior Scientist at the Lab of Ornithology and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, New York. He has studied cooperative breeding in acorn woodpeckers for over forty years. He is co-editor of Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Long-Term Studies of Ecology and Behavior (Cambridge, 1990) and Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds (Cambridge, 2004), and has published widely, primarily in the fields of population and behavioral ecology.

Janis L. Dickinson is Arthur A. Allen Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Professor in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, New York. Her work has primarily been in the fields of sexual selection and social behavior in insects and birds; she has studied the behavioral ecology of western bluebirds for over twenty-five years and is also co-editor of Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds (Cambridge, 2004). Her current interests include understanding how socially networked web environments can be designed to support collaborative conservation actions.