Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
University of Rostock

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 20 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5627, pp. 1947 - 1949
DOI: 10.1126/science.1082429
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Kin Selection in Cooperative Alliances of Carrion Crows

Vittorio Baglione,1* Daniela Canestrari,1 José M. Marcos,2 Jan Ekman1

In most cooperative vertebrates, delayed natal dispersal is the mechanism that leads to the formation of kin societies. Under this condition, the possibility that kin-based cooperative breeding is an unselected consequence of dispersal patterns can never be ruled out because helpers can only help their relatives. Here we show that a population of carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) fully fits the central prediction of kin selection theory that cooperative breeding should arise among relatives. On their territory, resident breeders are aided not only by nonbreeding retained offspring but also by immigrants (mainly males), with whom they share matings. Philopatry cannot account, however, for the high degree of genetic relatedness found between breeders and immigrants of the same sex that cooperate at a nest, indicating that crows actively choose to breed cooperatively with their relatives.

1 Population Biology/Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE-752 36, Uppsala, Sweden.
2 Physiology and Animal Biology, University of Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41071 Sevilla, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: vittorio.baglione{at}ebc.uu.se

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Mother-offspring interactions do not affect natal dispersal in a small rodent.
J-F Le Galliard, G Gundersen, and H Steen (2007)
Behav. Ecol. 18, 665-673
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mother-offspring competition promotes colonization success.
J. Cote, J. Clobert, and P. S. Fitze (2007)
PNAS 104, 9703-9708
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Self-recognition, color signals, and cycles of greenbeard mutualism and altruism.
B. Sinervo, A. Chaine, J. Clobert, R. Calsbeek, L. Hazard, L. Lancaster, A. G. McAdam, S. Alonzo, G. Corrigan, and M. E. Hochberg (2006)
PNAS 103, 7372-7377
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Group stability and homing behavior but no kin group structures in a coral reef fish.
N. Kolm, E.A. Hoffman, J. Olsson, A. Berglund, and A.G. Jones (2005)
Behav. Ecol. 16, 521-527
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Kinship in colonial tuco-tucos: evidence from group composition and population structure.
E. A. Lacey and J. R. Wieczorek (2004)
Behav. Ecol. 15, 988-996
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)