Helping decisions and kin recognition in long-tailed tits: is call similarity used to direct help towards kin?
Helping decisions and kin recognition in long-tailed tits: is call similarity used to direct help towards kin?
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DOI：
10.1098/rstb.2019.0565
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发表时间：
2020-07-06
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Hatchwell, Ben J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Leedale, Amy E.;Lachlan, Robert F.;Hatchwell, Ben J.
大多数合作繁殖者生活在离散的家庭群体中，但在少数情况下，繁殖群体由相关性各异的同种动物的扩展社会网络组成。可以期望对此类亲属邻里中更多相关个体进行有效亲属识别的选择，以最大化间接适应度。通过长期的社会谱系、分子遗传学、实地观察和声学分析，我们研究了声音相似性如何影响长尾山雀的帮助决策。长尾山雀是合作繁殖者，在这种情况下，那些在自己的繁殖尝试中失败的雄性通常会将帮助转向居住在近亲社区的雄性亲戚的后代。我们发现呼叫相似性和亲属关系之间存在正相关，这表明声音提示为亲属歧视提供了一种合理的机制。此外，我们还发现，失败的饲养员会选择帮助那些叫声与自己更相似的雄性。然而，尽管帮助者根据他们与接受者的关系密切程度来微调他们的供应率，但他们的努力与他们与受帮助的饲养者的声音相似性并不相关。我们的结论是，虽然发声是长尾山雀识别系统的重要组成部分，但辨别很可能是基于先前的关联，并且可能涉及声音和非声音线索的组合。本文是主题“识别系统中的信号检测理论：从进化模型到实验测试”的一部分。
Most cooperative breeders live in discrete family groups, but in a minority, breeding populations comprise extended social networks of conspecifics that vary in relatedness. Selection for effective kin recognition may be expected for more related individuals in such kin neighbourhoods to maximize indirect fitness. Using a long-term social pedigree, molecular genetics, field observations and acoustic analyses, we examine how vocal similarity affects helping decisions in the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus. Long-tailed tits are cooperative breeders in which help is typically redirected by males that have failed in their own breeding attempts towards the offspring of male relatives living within kin neighbourhoods. We identify a positive correlation between call similarity and kinship, suggesting that vocal cues offer a plausible mechanism for kin discrimination. Furthermore, we show that failed breeders choose to help males with calls more similar to their own. However, although helpers fine-tune their provisioning rates according to how closely related they are to recipients, their effort was not correlated with their vocal similarity to helped breeders. We conclude that although vocalizations are an important part of the recognition system of long-tailed tits, discrimination is likely to be based on prior association and may involve a combination of vocal and non-vocal cues.This article is part of the theme issue 'Signal detection theory in recognition systems: from evolving models to experimental tests'.