Is sociality associated with high longevity in North American birds?

Sociality, as a life-history trait, should be associated with high longevity because complex sociality is characterized by reproductive suppression, delayed breeding, increased care and survival, and some of these traits select for high longevity. We studied the relationship between cooperative pare...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology letters (2005) 2008-04, Vol.4 (2), p.146-148
Main Authors: Blumstein, D.T, Møller, A.P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Behaviour
Animals
Aves
Birds - physiology
Body Size
Cooperative Breeding
Geography
Life-History Theory Of Senescence
Longevity
Maximum Lifespan
Nesting Behavior - physiology
North America
Social Behavior
Species Specificity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sociality, as a life-history trait, should be associated with high longevity because complex sociality is characterized by reproductive suppression, delayed breeding, increased care and survival, and some of these traits select for high longevity. We studied the relationship between cooperative parental care (a proxy of complex sociality) and relative maximum lifespan in 257 North American bird species. After controlling for variation in maximum lifespan explained by body mass, sampling effort, latitude, mortality rate, migration distance and age at first reproduction, we found no significant effect of cooperative care on longevity in analyses of species-specific data or phylogenetically independent standardized linear contrasts. Thus, sociality itself is not associated with high longevity. Rather, longevity is correlated with increased body size, survival rate and age of first reproduction.
ISSN:1744-9561
1744-957X
DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0606