Attempts to account for observed variation in the degree of reproductive skew among cooperative breeders have usually assumed that subordinate breeding has fitness costs to dominant females. They argue that dominant ...

1. The ability of dispersing individuals to adjust their behaviour to changing conditions is instrumental in overcoming challenges and reducing dispersal costs, consequently increasing overall dispersal success. Understanding ...

Inmale vertebrates, androgens are inextricably linked to reproduction, social dominance, and aggression, often at the cost of paternal investment or prosociality. Testosterone is invoked to explain rank-related reproductive ...

Choosing suitable sleeping sites is a common challenge faced by animals across a range of taxa, with important implications for the space usage patterns of individuals, groups, and ultimately populations. A range of factors ...

The evolution of cooperative behavior is a major area of research among evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists, yet there are few estimates of its heritability or its evolutionary potential, and long-term studies ...

In eusocial invertebrates and obligate cooperative breeders, successful reproduction is dependent on assistance from non-breeding group members. Although naked (Heterocephalus glaber) and Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys ...

The fate of natural populations is mediated by complex interactions among vital rates, which can vary within and among years. Although the effects of random, among-year variation in vital rates have been studied extensively, ...

In cooperative societies with high reproductive skew, selection on females is likely to operate principally through variation in the probability of acquiring dominant status and variation in reproductive success while ...

In many cooperative breeders, the contributions of helpers to cooperative activities change with age, resulting in age-related polyethisms. In contrast, some studies of social mole rats (including naked mole rats, ...

In the majority of mammals, gestation length is relatively consistent and seldom varies by more than 3%. In a few species, females can adjust gestation length by delaying the development of the embryo after implantation. ...