Individual variation explains ageing patterns in a cooperatively breeding bird, the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus.

ABSTRACT: Alloparental care in cooperatively breeding species may alter breeder age-specific survival and reproduction and subsequently senescence. The helping behaviour itself might also undergo age-related change, and decisions to help in facultative cooperative breeders are likely to be affected by individual condition. Helpers in long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus assist relatives after failing to raise their own brood, with offspring from helped nests being more likely to recruit into the breeding population. Using data collected over 25 years, we examined the age trajectories of survival and reproduction in adult long-tailed tits to determine how these were affected by the presence or absence of helpers and how helper behaviour changed with age. There was evidence for increased reproductive

SUBMITTER: Roper M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9542241 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature