Florida Scrub Jays are an excellent example of a cooperative-breeding species, in which adult birds often help raise offspring not their own. For more than a decade Glen E. Woolfenden and John W. Fitzpatrick studied a marked population of these birds in an attempt to establish a demographic base for understanding the phenomenon of "helping at the nest." By studying both population biology and behavior, the authors found that habitat restraints, rather than kin selection, are the main source of the behavior of Florida Scrub Jays: the goal of increasing the number of close relatives other than descendants in future generations is of relatively minor importance in their cooperative-breeding behavior. The Florida Scrub Jay lives only in the Florida oak scrub. All acceptable habitat is constantly filled with breeders. Each year about half of the pairs are assisted by one to several nonbreeding helpers. This book provides extensive data on fecundity, survivorship, relatedness, and dispersal to establish the demographic milieu and to address questions arising out of observed helping behavior--whom, how, when, and why the helpers help.

Cooperative breeding is an unusual kind of social behaviour, found in a few hundred species worldwide, in which individuals other than the parents help raise young. Understanding the apparently altruistic behaviour of helpers has provided numerous challenges to evolutionary biologists. This book includes detailed first-hand summaries of many of the major empirical studies of cooperatively breeding birds. It provides comparative information on the demography, social behaviour and behavioural ecology of these unusual species and explores the diversity of ideas and the controversies which have developed in this field. The studies are all long-term and consequently the book summarises some of the most extensive studies of the behaviour of marked individuals ever undertaken. Graduate students and research workers in ornithology, sociobiology, behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology will find much of value in this book.

Cooperative breeders are species in which more than a pair of individuals assist in the production of young. Cooperative breeding is found in only a few hundred bird species world-wide, and understanding this often strikingly altruistic behaviour has remained an important challenge in behavioural ecology for over 30 years. This book highlights the theoretical, empirical and technical advances that have taken place in the field of cooperative breeding research since the publication of the seminal work Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Long-term Studies of Behavior and Ecology (1990, HB ISBN 0521 372984, PB ISBN 0521 378907). Organized conceptually, special attention is given to ways in which cooperative breeders have proved fertile subjects for testing modern advances to classic evolutionary problems including those of sexual selection, sex-ratio manipulation, life-history evolution, partitioning of reproduction and incest avoidance. It will be of interest to both students and researchers interested in behaviour and ecology.

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Biology - Developmental Biology, grade: 1,7, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, language: English, abstract: Cooperative breeding systems, in which the offspring of a species is raised and nurtured by not only the parental individuals, but also by alloparents, are widespread among social animals. In birds, around 9 % of all species engage in cooperative breeding. The question why an individual engages in cooperative breeding instead of breeding independently has been a continuous point for researchers. The fitness benefits that an individual gains from cooperative breeding differ from inclusive fitness in the Florida Scrub Jay to a rise of available food sources and group benefits for the Azure-Winged Magpie and Brown-headed Nuthatch. Since the graphic distribution of cooperative breeding in birds is highly variable, it has been suggested that ecological conditions must play a part in what drives cooperative breeding. The ‘Hard-Life Hypothesis’ states that the more barren the environment in which a species has to raise their offspring, the more likely it is that the individuals will participate in cooperative breeding. The ‘Ecological-Constraint Hypothesis’ states that, if an individual cannot find an own habitat due to saturation of the surrounding territories, it will stay and act as an alloparent for its relatives instead. Other, more recent theories take the life history into account as well, stating that the survival rates of not only the offspring but all group members of the system rise.

Natal dispersal is a crucial life-history event which, at the individual level, represents an opportunity to move to high-quality breeding space associated with increased survival and reproductive success, and at the population level, underlies species distribution, population persistence, and gene flow. Despite its importance, dispersal is often treated as a random process owing to difficulties in monitoring movements of wild animals. Variation in dispersal is primarily driven by the balance between its costs and benefits, with benefits needing to outweigh costs of energetics, exposure to predators and competitors, and finding mates. This tradeoff is pronounced in cooperatively breeding species, in which offspring often delay dispersing from the natal territory. To investigate this complex behavior, I studied variation in natal dispersal and its components in an intensively studied population of Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens), a cooperatively breeding species that specializes in a rare, fire-maintained oak scrub habitat endemic to Florida. By combining over 35 years of historical data and 5 years of field-collected data, I aimed to understand the drivers and consequences of natal dispersal in this population. I first summarized available data on dispersal patterns in this population, focusing on social and environmental factors related to variation in dispersal timing and distance. I then examined a previously overlooked pattern of dispersal called "staging" in which offspring disperse to join unrelated groups as nonbreeders. This behavioral variation explained some of the patterns previously uncovered, and exposed some proximate and ultimate drivers of dispersal. Next, using field methods along with laboratory work, I studied the physiological costs of prospecting, or information-gathering movements that precede dispersal. I found that prospecting results in oxidative damage, which is also regulated by early-life morphology and condition. Last, I quantified pre-breeding movements using newly developed tracking technology to understand how Florida scrub-jays explore their surroundings prior to dispersal. Combined, my chapters describe intraspecific movement and dispersal patterns, as well as some of their fitness consequences. Ultimately, my study of dispersal variation sheds new light on the complex nature of pre-breeding movement in a cooperatively breeding bird species, and contributes to the growing body of field and theoretical studies of this important life-history stage.

Cooperative breeders are species in which individuals beyond a pair assist in the production of young in a single brood or litter. Although relatively rare, cooperative breeding is widespread taxonomically and continues to pose challenges to our understanding of the evolution of cooperation and altruistic behavior. Bringing together long-term studies of cooperatively breeding birds, mammals, and fish, this volume provides a synthesis of current studies in the field. The chapters are organised by individual studies of particular species or (in the case of mole-rats) two closely related cooperatively breeding species. Each focuses not only on describing behavior and ecology but also on testing evolutionary hypotheses for the form and function of the diverse and extraordinary cooperative breeding lifestyles that have been discovered. This unique and comprehensive text will be of interest to graduate students and researchers of behavioral ecology and the evolution of cooperation.