Publication Date:
2013-12-21
Description:
The global distribution of cooperatively breeding birds is highly uneven, with hotspots in Australasia and sub-Saharan Africa. The ecological drivers of this distribution remain enigmatic yet could yield insights into the evolution and persistence of cooperative breeding. We report that the global distributions of avian obligate brood parasites and cooperatively breeding passerines are tightly correlated and that the uneven phylogenetic distribution of cooperative breeding is associated with the uneven targeting of hosts by brood parasites. With a long-term field study, we show that brood parasites can acquire superior care for their young by targeting cooperative breeders. Conversely, host defenses against brood parasites are strengthened by helpers at the nest. Reciprocally selected interactions between brood parasites and cooperative breeders may therefore explain the close association between these two breeding systems.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Feeney, W E -- Medina, I -- Somveille, M -- Heinsohn, R -- Hall, M L -- Mulder, R A -- Stein, J A -- Kilner, R M -- Langmore, N E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Dec 20;342(6165):1506-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1240039.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24357317" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Africa, Southern
;
*Aggression
;
Animal Distribution
;
Animals
;
Australia
;
*Biological Evolution
;
*Breeding
;
*Cooperative Behavior
;
*Nesting Behavior
;
Passeriformes/classification/*physiology
;
Phylogeny
;
Vocalization, Animal
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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