Sex-specific effects of cooperative breeding and colonial nesting on prosociality in corvids
- University of Vienna, Austria
- University of Zurich, Switzerland
- Keio University, Japan
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Germany
- Hokkaido University, Japan
- University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany
- Zurich University, Switzerland
- Utrecht University, Netherlands
Abstract
The investigation of prosocial behavior is of particular interest from an evolutionary perspective. Comparisons of prosociality across non-human animal species have, however, so far largely focused on primates, and their interpretation is hampered by the diversity of paradigms and procedures used. Here we present the first systematic comparison of prosocial behavior across multiple species in a taxonomic group outside the primate order, namely the bird family Corvidae. We measured prosociality in 8 corvid species, which vary in the expression of cooperative breeding and colonial nesting. We show that cooperative breeding is positively associated with prosocial behavior across species. Also, colonial nesting is associated with a stronger propensity for prosocial behavior, but only in males. The combined results of our study strongly suggest that both cooperative breeding and colonial nesting, which may both rely on heightened social tolerance at the nest, are likely evolutionary pathways to prosocial behavior in corvids.
Data availability
The datasets analyzed in this study are available on Dryad.
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Sex-specific effects of cooperative breeding and colonial nesting on prosociality in corvidsDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.s7h44j14d.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Austrian Science Fund (P26806)
- Jorg JM Massen
JST CREST (JPMJCR17A4)
- Ei-Ichi Izawa
Keio University ICR Projects (MKJ1905)
- Ei-Ichi Izawa
Royal Society of New Zealand (Rutherford Discovery Fellowship)
- Alex H Taylor
Prime Minister's McDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize
- Alex H Taylor
University of Vienna (Marie Jahoda grant)
- Lisa Horn
Austrian Science Fund (Y366-B17)
- Thomas Bugnyar
Vienna Science and Technology Fund (CS11-008)
- Thomas Bugnyar
ERA-Net BiodivERsA (31BD30_172465)
- Michael Griesser
University of Vienna (Förderungsstipendium)
- Marietta Hengl
- Christiane Rössler
University of Vienna (Uni:Docs doctoral fellowship)
- Lisa-Claire Vanhooland
JSPS KAKENHI (17H02653)
- Ei-Ichi Izawa
JSPS KAKENHI (16H06324)
- Ei-Ichi Izawa
JSPS KAKENHI (15J02148)
- Masaki Suyama
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Ammie K Kalan, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Ethics
Animal experimentation: The study followed the Guidelines for the Use of Animals (81), in accordance with national legislations. All animal care and data collection protocols were reviewed and approved by the ethical boards of the respective research institutions (see SI, Table S7).
Version history
- Received: April 22, 2020
- Accepted: October 18, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: October 20, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: November 3, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2020, Horn et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Sex-specific effects of cooperative breeding and colonial nesting on prosociality in corvids
eLife 9:e58139.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58139
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