Kin Discrimination and the Benefit of Helping in Cooperatively Breeding Vertebrates

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 302; no. 5645; pp. 634 - 636
• Main Authors: Griffin, Ashleigh S., West, Stuart A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 24.10.2003; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Altruism; Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Animals; Aviculture; Behavior, Animal; Biological and medical sciences; Birds - physiology; Breeding; Breeding of animals; Comparative Analysis; Cooperative Behavior; Correlation; DNA damage; Effect Size; Evolution; Family; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Helping Behavior; Helping Relationship; Kin selection; Kin selection (Evolution); Kin selection (Natural selection); Male; Mammals; Mammals - physiology; Meta Analysis; Probability; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Sample Size; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Social Behavior; Species; Species Specificity; Vertebrates; Zero; Non breeding adult; Vertebrata; Social behavior; Helping behavior; Cooperative breeding; Kin recognition; Breeding behavior
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1089402

In many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, a dominant breeding pair is assisted in offspring care by nonbreeding helpers. A leading explanation for this altruistic behavior is Hamilton's idea that helpers gain indirect fitness benefits by rearing relatives (kin selection). Many studies have shown that helpers typically provide care for relatives, but relatively few have shown that helpers provide closer kin with preferential care (kin discrimination), fueling the suggestion that kin selection only poorly accounts for the evolution of cooperative breeding in vertebrates. We used meta-analysis to show that (i) individuals consistently discriminate between kin, and (ii) stronger discrimination occurs in species where the benefits of helping are greater. These results suggest a general role for kin selection and that the relative importance of kin selection varies across species, as predicted by Hamilton's rule.