Ecogeography of group size suggests differences in drivers of sociality among cooperatively breeding fairywrens.

ABSTRACT: Cooperatively breeding species exhibit a range of social behaviours associated with different costs and benefits to group living, often in association with different environmental conditions. For example, recent phylogenetic studies have collectively shown that the evolution and distribution of cooperative breeding behaviour is related to the environment. However, little is known about how environmental variation may drive differences in social systems across populations within species, and how the relationship between environmental conditions and sociality may differ across species. Here, we examine variation in social group size along a steep environmental gradient for two congeneric cooperatively breeding species of fairywrens (Maluridae) and show that they exhibit opposing ecogeographi

SUBMITTER: Johnson AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10015324 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature