Variable ecological conditions promote male helping by changing banded mongoose group composition.

ABSTRACT: Ecological conditions are expected to have an important influence on individuals' investment in cooperative care. However, the nature of their effects is unclear: both favorable and unfavorable conditions have been found to promote helping behavior. Recent studies provide a possible explanation for these conflicting results by suggesting that increased ecological variability, rather than changes in mean conditions, promote cooperative care. However, no study has tested whether increased ecological variability promotes individual-level helping behavior or the mechanisms involved. We test this hypothesis in a long-term study population of the cooperatively breeding banded mongoose, Mungos mungo, using 14 years of behavioral and meteorological data to explore how the mean and variabili

SUBMITTER: Marshall HH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4943108 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature