0000000000349585
AUTHOR
Frédérique Dubois
The forager's dilemma: food sharing and food defense as risk-sensitive foraging options.
Although many variants of the hawk-dove game predict the frequency at which group foraging animals should compete aggressively, none of them can explain why a large number of group foraging animals share food clumps without any overt aggression. One reason for this shortcoming is that hawk-dove games typically consider only a single contest, while most group foraging situations involve opponents that interact repeatedly over discovered food clumps. The present iterated hawk-dove game predicts that in situations that are analogous to a prisoner's dilemma, animals should share the resources without aggression, provided that the number of simultaneously available food clumps is sufficiently la…
Mate fidelity and coloniality in waterbirds: a comparative analysis
Increased opportunities for information are one potential benefit of sociality. We apply this idea to the advantages of colonial breeding in bird species that are typically monogamous within a breeding season but often form new pair-bonds in subsequent seasons. Individuals may benefit from nesting in colonies at high density by identifying good-quality potential alternative mates among their neighbours. The opportunities for finding a better mating option are likely to increase with colony size and density. We tested this prediction with a comparative analysis of the association between mate fidelity and coloniality in waterbirds (wading birds and seabirds), where there is wide variation in…
Breeding success and mate retention in birds: a meta-analysis
Several hypotheses about the adaptive value of divorce in birds predict a positive effect of breeding success on mate retention. Although some studies have provided direct support for this prediction, others have failed to demonstrate any significant influence of breeding success on mate retention. To date, no one has investigated the overall empirical evidence for such a relationship. We used a meta-analysis of published results to investigate whether the rate of divorce between consecutive breeding seasons differed between successful and unsuccessful breeders among monogamous bird species. The analysis was based on 38 studies involving 35 different species. The mean weighted effect size, …
Is mate fidelity related to site fidelity? A comparative analysis in Ciconiiforms
We tested for an association between divorce rate and site fidelity in 42 avian species belonging to the order Ciconiiforms, using comparative methods that account for the influences of phylogenetic relationships on the data. Our methods enabled us to detect evidence of correlated evolution and provided information on the temporal ordering of evolutionary changes in these two variables. We found a significant correlation between divorce rate and site fidelity, indicating that species with little or no site fidelity are more likely to divorce. Our data suggest that the coupled evolution of divorce and site fidelity can be summarized by three major events. The first event corresponds to a tra…
Pair-bonding in birds and the active role of females: a critical review of the empirical evidence.
Over the recent years the role of females in maintaining or breaking the pair-bond in socially monogamous birds has received growing attention. Here, we review the overall evidence for a direct and predominant role of female behaviour in initiating or preventing divorce and its relevance for the understanding of both interspecific and intraspecific variation in divorce rate in monogamous bird species. The evidence is so far limited to a few species. We discuss the relevance of some alternative explanations and confounding factors. We conclude that the possible predominance of females in both initiating divorce or limiting its occurrence deserves further consideration. Future studies should …