0000000000808309
AUTHOR
Kathryn E. Arnold
Toward sustainable environmental quality : Priority research questions for Europe
P.J. Van den Brink et al.
Dynamics of the caring family
When several individuals simultaneously provide for offspring, as in families, the effort of any one individual will depend on the efforts of the other family members. This conflict of interest among family members is made more complicated by their relatedness because relatives share genetic interest to some degree. The conflict resolution will also be influenced by the differences in reproductive value between breeders and helpers. Here, we calculate evolutionarily stable provisioning efforts in families with up to two helpers. We explicitly consider that the behavioral choices are made in a life-history context, and we also consider how group sizes change dynamically; this affects, for ex…