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Nest helpers improve parental survival but not offspring production in a high‐elevation passerine, the Ground Tit Pseudopodoces humilis
Author(s) -
Li Yinhui,
Li Shaobin,
Guo Cheng,
Zhang Guoyue,
Zhou Yang,
Lu Xin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ibis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1474-919X
pISSN - 0019-1019
DOI - 10.1111/ibi.12266
Subject(s) - passerine , fledge , nest (protein structural motif) , biology , reproduction , offspring , cooperative breeding , ecology , reproductive success , population , facultative , demography , zoology , predation , pregnancy , biochemistry , genetics , sociology
The way in which breeders respond to helping, in terms of either offspring production or their own survival, may reflect the adaptive aspects of a cooperative breeding system. We explore this issue using a 5‐year study of the Ground Tit Pseudopodoces humilis , a facultative cooperative breeder in which 47% of socially monogamous pairs have between one and four close male relatives as helpers. We found that helped nests did not fledge more or heavier nestlings than unhelped nests, and male young from helped and unhelped nests were equally likely to recruit into the local breeding population. However, helped parents of both sexes had a higher probability of survival to the following year than did unhelped parents. These findings suggest that Ground Tit parents with helpers trade current reproduction for personal survival and future reproduction, a strategy favoured by selection to cope with harsh, unpredictable environments such as the Tibetan Plateau.