Social genetic and social environment effects on parental and helper care in a cooperatively breeding bird.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypes expressed in a social context are not only a function of the individual, but can also be shaped by the phenotypes of social partners. These social effects may play a major role in the evolution of cooperative breeding if social partners differ in the quality of care they provide and if individual carers adjust their effort in relation to that of other carers. When applying social effects models to wild study systems, it is also important to explore sources of individual plasticity that could masquerade as social effects. We studied offspring provisioning rates of parents and helpers in a wild population of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus using a quantitative genetic framework to identify these social effects and partition them into genetic, permanent environment and current

SUBMITTER: Adams MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4590478 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature