Hastings Natural History Reservation

01 Mar, 12 AM - 15 Jul, 11 AM

In year-round resident populations with extensive kin structure, what costs and benefits govern the cooperative and competitive interactions among neighbors? Although settlement near kin is not uncommon in cooperative breeders, few studies have examined the interactions among kin breeding on separate but nearby territories in contexts other than the feeding of young. In my doctoral dissertation, I investigate new ways in which living in stable, kin-structured neighborhoods affects individual fitness. First, I test whether living near kin mitigates males? loss of direct fitness due to extra-pair paternity or increases this loss. Living near kin may confer associational benefits in the context of extra-pair mating such that males living near kin have a decreased risk of losing paternity to unrelated males, losing fewer offspring equivalents overall than males living near non-kin. However, living near kin also establishes genetic and dominance asymmetries in extra-pair mating opportunities such that sons who live near fathers may have an increased risk of paternity loss. I test these hypotheses using male removal experiments, comparing paternity losses between males with and without relatives nearby, and between fathers and sons breeding near each other. Second, I investigate the extent to which presence of and distance to relatives affect an individual?s likelihood of receiving assistance in critical situations. Kinship may influence assistance such that living near kin results in a greater likelihood of receiving assistance in such situations. By simulating 1) attack by a predator, and 2) intrusion by a conspecific in my field experiments, I am able to test predictions about the roles of relatedness and proximity in determining assistance responses. Ultimately, my experiments will illuminate how living near close relatives affects individual outcomes of rare interactions that occur during short-term threats to survival and reproductive success, contributing a more expansive view of the costs and benefits of breeding in kin neighborhoods.

Visit #19879 @Hastings Natural History Reservation

Approved

Under Project # 19440 | Research

Cooperation with neighbors in western bluebirds

graduate_student - Cornell University

Reservation Members(s)

Caitlin Stern Mar 1 - Jul 15, 2010 (137 days)

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Fanny's Cabin/Caboose 1 Mar 1 - Jul 15, 2010