Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Study of Mammalian Cooperative Breeding
- 2 The Bioenergetics of Parental Behavior and the Evolution of Alloparental Care in Marmosets and Tamarins
- 3 Proximate Regulation of Singular Breeding in Callitrichid Primates
- 4 Cooperative Breeding, Reproductive Suppression, and Body Mass in Canids
- 5 Hormonal and Experiential Factors in the Expression of Social and Parental Behavior in Canids
- 6 Variation in Reproductive Suppression among Dwarf Mongooses: Interplay between Mechanisms and Evolution
- 7 Dynamic Optimization and Cooperative Breeding: An Evaluation of Future Fitness Effects
- 8 Examination of Alternative Hypotheses for Cooperative Breeding in Rodents
- 9 The Psychobiological Basis of Cooperative Breeding in Rodents
- 10 Cooperative Breeding in Naked Mole-Rats: Implications for Vertebrate and Invertebrate Sociality
- 11 The Physiology of a Reproductive Dictatorship: Regulation of Male and Female Reproduction by a Single Breeding Female in Colonies of Naked Mole-Rats
- 12 Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Communal Care in Plural Breeding Mammals
- 13 A Bird's-Eye View of Mammalian Cooperative Breeding
- Index
9 - The Psychobiological Basis of Cooperative Breeding in Rodents
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Study of Mammalian Cooperative Breeding
- 2 The Bioenergetics of Parental Behavior and the Evolution of Alloparental Care in Marmosets and Tamarins
- 3 Proximate Regulation of Singular Breeding in Callitrichid Primates
- 4 Cooperative Breeding, Reproductive Suppression, and Body Mass in Canids
- 5 Hormonal and Experiential Factors in the Expression of Social and Parental Behavior in Canids
- 6 Variation in Reproductive Suppression among Dwarf Mongooses: Interplay between Mechanisms and Evolution
- 7 Dynamic Optimization and Cooperative Breeding: An Evaluation of Future Fitness Effects
- 8 Examination of Alternative Hypotheses for Cooperative Breeding in Rodents
- 9 The Psychobiological Basis of Cooperative Breeding in Rodents
- 10 Cooperative Breeding in Naked Mole-Rats: Implications for Vertebrate and Invertebrate Sociality
- 11 The Physiology of a Reproductive Dictatorship: Regulation of Male and Female Reproduction by a Single Breeding Female in Colonies of Naked Mole-Rats
- 12 Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Communal Care in Plural Breeding Mammals
- 13 A Bird's-Eye View of Mammalian Cooperative Breeding
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Cooperative mating systems require coordinated reproductive efforts among the members of a breeding unit. To achieve coordinated reproduction, cooperative mammalian species commonly possess mechanisms for reproductive and social suppression, limiting the number of reproductive individuals present and establishing a social hierarchy that provides structure for the breeding unit. Cooperative breeding systems are probably formed as a result of two primary factors: (1) ecological conditions that do not favor independent reproduction of subordinate members of the breeding unit, and/or (2) conditions under which the successful production of offspring by a breeding unit requires the effort of an extended family. The proximate factors resulting in philopatry, reproductive suppression, and alloparental behavior by subordinate members of the breeding unit are the topics of this chapter.
The importance of sociality and cooperative behavior to successful reproduction is particularly apparent in “monogamous” mammals, including animals as diverse as prairie voles (Carter, Getz, & Cohen-Parsons 1986; Carter & Getz 1993), Mongolian gerbils (Swanson 1985), elephant shrews (Rathbun 1979), dwarf mongoose (Rood 1980), aardwolves (Richardson 1987), and some New World primates, including marmosets and tamarins (Abbott et al. 1989; Snowdon 1990; Abbott 1993). Monogamy has been characterized by a complex of features including high levels of social behavior and pair bonds, exclusion of strangers from the family, biparental care, reproductive suppression of subordinate members of a family group, incest avoidance, and reduced sexual dimorphism (Kleiman 1977; Dewsbury 1981, 1988; Mendoza & Mason 1986).
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- Information
- Cooperative Breeding in Mammals , pp. 231 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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