Factors influencing within-group conflict over defence against conspecific outsiders seeking breeding positions.

ABSTRACT: In social species, groups face a variety of threats from conspecific outsiders. Defensive actions are therefore common, but there is considerable variation in which individuals contribute and to what extent. There has been some theoretical exploration of this variation when the defence is of shared resources, but the relative contributions when a single intruder threatens a particular breeding position have received less attention. Defensive actions are costly, both for the individual and dependent young, and contributions are likely to differ depending on individual sex, rank and size, current breeding stage, infanticide risk and relatedness levels. Here, we model analytically the relative fitness benefits of different group members to engaging in defence against individual intruders and

SUBMITTER: Schindler S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6304047 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature