Nepotistic access to food resources in cooperatively breeding carrion crows |
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Authors: | Elisa Chiarati Daniela Canestrari Marta Vila Ruben Vera Vittorio Baglione |
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Institution: | 1.Department of Agro-forestry,University of Valladolid,Palencia,Spain;2.Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Sciences,University of A Coru?a,A Coru?a,Spain;3.Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute,University of Valladolid,Palencia,Spain |
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Abstract: | Offspring delayed dispersal is the principal mechanism leading to formation of kin-based societies. It has been suggested
that parents promote offspring philopatry by providing them with preferential access to the food resources of the territory
and that parental tolerance may be affected by territory quality. However, few studies have addressed this hypothesis in kin-living
vertebrate species. Here, we show that in cooperative breeding groups of carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) containing retained offspring and immigrants, dominant breeding males behaved nepotistically on an experimental source of
food by (1) attacking immigrants with more frequency and intensity than offspring and (2) associating preferentially with
their offspring on the feeding spot and sharing food with them. This parental facilitation allowed the offspring to spend
more time feeding than higher-rank immigrants. We also found that a year-round experimental food supplementation neither increased
breeding males’ tolerance nor relented the overall aggressiveness in the groups. This indicates that higher natal philopatry
observed on fed territories compared to unfed ones is not a consequence of a more benign social environment. Rather, it suggests
that offspring value territory resource wealth and adjust the timing of dispersal accordingly. |
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