Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates

Brings together long-term studies of cooperation in vertebrates that challenge our understanding of the evolution of social behavior.

List of contributors; Introduction Janis L. Dickinson and Walter D. Koenig; 1. Siberian jays: delayed dispersal in the absence of cooperative breeding Jan Ekman and Michael Griesser; 2. Western bluebirds: lessons from a marginal cooperative breeder Janis L. Dickinson, Çälar Akçay, Elise D. Ferree and Caitlin A. Stern; 3. Long-tailed tits: ecological causes and fitness consequences of redirected helping Ben J. Hatchwell; 4. Red-cockaded woodpeckers: alternative pathways to breeding success Jeffrey R. Walters and Victoria Garcia; 5. Florida scrub-jays: advantages of large territories and group-defense in a fire-maintained habitat John W. Fitzpatrick and Reed Bowman; 6. Carrion crows: family living and helping in a flexible social system Vittorio Baglione and Daniela Canestrari; 7. Southern pied babblers: the dynamics of conflict and cooperation in a group-living society Amanda R. Ridley; 8. Superb fairy-wrens: making the worst of a good job Andrew Cockburn, Lyanne Brouwer, Nicolas Margraf, Helen L. Osmond and Martijn van de Pol; 9. Chestnut-crowned babblers: dealing with climatic adversity and uncertainty in the Australian arid zone Andrew F. Russell; 10. Bell miners: kin-selected helping decisions Jonathan Wright and Paul G. McDonald; 11. Superb starlings: cooperation and conflict in an unpredictable environment Dustin R. Rubenstein; 12. Seychelles warblers: complexities of the helping paradox Jan Komdeur, Terry Burke, Hannah Dugdale and David S. Richardson; 13. Acorn woodpeckers: helping at the nest, polygynandry, and dependence on a variable acorn crop Walter D. Koenig, Eric L. Walters and Joseph Haydock; 14. Taiwan yuhinas: unrelated joint-nesters cooperate in unfavorable environments Sheng-Feng Shen, Hsiao-Wei Yuan and Mark Liu; 15. Guira cuckoos: cooperation, infanticide, and female reproductive investment in a joint-nesting species Regina H. Macedo; 16. Cichlid fishes: a model for the integrative study of social behavior Michael Taborsky; 17. Meerkats: cooperative breeding in the Kalahari Tim Clutton-Brock and Marta Manser; 18. Banded mongooses: demography, life history, and social behavior Michael A. Cant, Hazel J. Nichols, Faye J. Thompson and Emma Vitikainen; 19. Damaraland and naked mole-rats: convergence of social evolution Chris G. Faulkes and Nigel C. Bennett; 20. Synthesis: cooperative breeding in the twenty-first century Walter D. Koenig, Janis L. Dickinson and Stephen T. Emlen; Taxonomic index; Subject index.