Friday, November 10, 2023

In many cooperative societies (including our own), helpers assist with the post-natal care of breeders’ young, and may thereby benefit the post-natal development of offspring


Mothers in a wild, cooperatively breeding bird lay larger eggs when they will have more help with nestling care, a strategy that may allow helped mothers to focus maternal investment on the pre-natal phase, to which helpers cannot contribute directly

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

In many cooperative societies (including our own), helpers assist with the post-natal care of breeders’ young, and may thereby benefit the post-natal development of offspring 

IMAGE: 

COOPERATIVE HELPER WHITE-BROWED SPARROW WEAVERS ASSIST WITH THE POST-NATAL CARE OF BREEDERS’ YOUNG (MALE, DARK BEAK; FEMALE, PINK BEAK). THEY THEREBY BENEFIT THE POST-NATAL DEVELOPMENT OF OFFSPRING AND MAY ALLOW MOTHERS TO FOCUS MATERNAL INVESTMENT ON THE PRE-NATAL PHASE, TO WHICH HELPERS CANNOT CONTRIBUTE DIRECTLY.

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CREDIT: ANDREW J. YOUNG (CC-BY 4.0, HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)



In many cooperative societies (including our own), helpers assist with the post-natal care of breeders’ young, and may thereby benefit the post-natal development of offspring

Mothers in a wild, cooperatively breeding bird lay larger eggs when they will have more help with nestling care, a strategy that may allow helped mothers to focus maternal investment on the pre-natal phase, to which helpers cannot contribute directly

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In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biologyhttp://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002356

Article Title: Mothers in a cooperatively breeding bird increase investment per offspring at the pre-natal stage when they will have more help with post-natal care

Author Countries: United Kingdom

Funding: The long-term field study was funded by a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship to A.J.Y. (BB/H022716/1) and P.C.-L. was supported by a BBSRC-funded PhD studentship (BB/M009122/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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