DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Maintenance of Cooperative Nest Construction in Sociable Weavers (Philetairus Socius)

虽然自然选择的进化经常被描述为支持无情，自私的行为，但合作实际上在自然界中很普遍。因此，合作行为的进化已经成为生物学的一个中心问题。本研究探讨了一种特殊形式的合作，在非洲鸟类合作筑巢的演变。公共巢穴代表了一个公共物品的困境：每个个体都直接从公共巢穴中受益，但如果它可以避免为筑巢做出贡献，只要其他人继续维护巢穴，它就会受益更多。这种公共产品困境在人类社会中很常见，但很少在非人类动物中进行探索。本研究将探讨纳米比亚鸟，社会性织布鸟合作筑巢行为。在自然界中观察筑巢将检查性别和个人的相对贡献，以测试在这种情况下的合作是否可以通过亲属选择来解释。简单地说，亲缘选择是一种有利于帮助遗传亲属的自然选择。 一个基于代理的模型将被用来进一步探讨合作筑巢的可能性，可以通过亲属选择持续。 用于实现该模型的计算机代码将提供给其他科学家，从而促进未来在社会进化方面的建模工作。此外，一项实验将测试放弃合作筑巢的个体是否会受到其他人的惩罚;这种惩罚是对人类社会公共产品贡献的常见解释。因此，本研究将检验解释人类社会中对公共产品的贡献的理论是否解释了这个模型系统中的合作。该项目还将有助于培养下一代科学家和工程师。 该项目包括遗传分析和行为观察方面的本科生指导和培训，从而为下一代美国科学家提供有用的研究经验。

Although evolution by natural selection has often been depicted as favoring ruthless, selfish behavior, cooperation is actually widespread in nature. Consequently, the evolution of cooperative behavior has become a central problem in biology. The present research examines the evolution of a particular form of cooperation, cooperative nest building in an African bird. Communal nests represent a public goods dilemma: each individual benefits directly from the communal nest, but would benefit more if it could refrain from contributing to nest-building as long as others continued to maintain the nest. Such public goods dilemmas are common in human societies but have rarely been explored in non-human animals. This research will investigate cooperative nest construction behavior of a Namibian bird, the sociable weaver. Observations of nest construction in nature will examine relative contributions of the sexes and of individuals to test whether cooperation in this instance can be explained via kin selection. Simply, kin selection is a type of natural selection favoring aid to genetic relatives. An agent-based model will be used to further explore the possibility that cooperative nest building can be sustained through kin selection. The computer code used to implement the model will be made available to other scientists, thus facilitating future modeling efforts in social evolution.In addition, an experiment will test whether individuals that forego cooperative nest construction are punished by others; such punishment is a common explanation for contribution to public goods in human societies. Thus the research will test whether theories explaining contribution to public goods in human societies explain cooperation in this model system. The project will also contribute to the development of the next generation of scientists and engineers. The project includes undergraduate mentoring and training in genetic analyses and behavioral observation, thus providing useful research experience for the next generation of American scientists.