Do avian cooperative breeders live longer?

ABSTRACT: Cooperative breeding is not common in birds but intriguingly over-represented in several families, suggesting that predisposing factors, similar ecological constraints or a combination of the two facilitate the evolution of this breeding strategy. The life-history hypothesis proposes that cooperative breeding is facilitated by high annual survival, which increases the local population and leads to a shortage of breeding opportunities. Clutch size in cooperative breeders is also expected to be smaller. An earlier comparative analysis in a small sample of birds supported the hypothesis but this conclusion has been controversial. Here, I extend the analysis to a larger, worldwide sample and take into account potential confounding factors that may affect estimates of a slow pace of life and cl

SUBMITTER: Beauchamp G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071557 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature