Complementary interactions between indirect and direct fitness in a cooperatively breeding  

作　　者：Zhibing Li Xinwei Da Xin Lu 

机构地区：[1]Institute for Advanced Studies,Wuhan University,Wuhan,China [2]Department of Ecology,College of Life Sciences,Wuhan University,Wuhan,China

出　　处：《Current Zoology》2023年第1期76-81,共6页动物学报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31830085);the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research program(2019QZKK0501).

摘　　要：Altruism is difficult to explain evolutionarily and to understand it,there is a need to quantify the benefits and costs to altruists.Hamilton’s theory of kin selection argues that altruism can persist if the costs to altruists are offset by indirect fitness payoffs from helping related recipients.Nevertheless,helping nonkin is also common and in such situations,the costs must be compensated for by direct benefits.While previous researchers tended to evaluate the indirect and direct fitness in isolation,we expect that they have a complementary interaction where altruists are associated with recipients of different relatedness within a population.The prediction is tested with 12years of data on lifetime reproductive success for a cooperatively breeding bird,Tibetan ground tits Pseudopodoces humilis.Helpers who helped distantly related recipients gained significantly lower indirect benefits than those who helped closely related recipients,but the opposite was true for direct fitness,thereby making these helpers have an equal inclusive fitness.Helping efforts were independent of helpers’relatedness to recipients,but those helping distantly related recipients were more likely to inherit the resident territory,which could be responsible for their high direct reproductive success.Our findings provide an explanatory model for the widespread coexistence of altruists and recipients with varying relatedness within a single population.

关 键 词：ALTRUISM cooperative breeding Hamilton’s rule kin selection 

分 类 号：Q95[生物学—动物学]