ArticlePloS one2013
Maternal effects in relation to helper presence in the cooperatively breeding sociable weaver.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mothers in a cooperatively breeding bird increase investment per offspring at the pre-natal stage when they will have more help with post-natal care.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Egg components and offspring survival vary with group size and laying order in a cooperative breeder.Oecologia · 2023Article
- Who listens to mother? A whole-family perspective on the evolution of maternal hormone allocation.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2021Review
- Contrasting associations between nestling telomere length and pre and postnatal helpers' presence in a cooperatively breeding bird.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Morphological and genomic shifts in mole-rat 'queens' increase fecundity but reduce skeletal integrity.eLife · 2021Article
- Article
- The relationship between egg size and helper number in cooperative breeders: a meta-analysis across species.PeerJ · 2017Article
- Getting fat or getting help? How female mammals cope with energetic constraints on reproduction.Frontiers in zoology · 2017Article
- Egg size investment in superb fairy-wrens: helper effects are modulated by climate.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Evolutionary implications of interspecific variation in a maternal effect: a meta-analysis of yolk testosterone response to competition.Royal Society open science · 2016Article
- Antagonistic effect of helpers on breeding male and female survival in a cooperatively breeding bird.The Journal of animal ecology · 2015Article
- Group size predicts prenatal investment and offspring growth in a cooperatively breeding bird.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Interplay of cooperative breeding and predation risk on egg allocation and reproductive output.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
In egg laying species, breeding females may adjust the allocation of nutrients or other substances into eggs in order to maximise offspring or maternal fitness. Cooperatively breeding species offer a particularly interesting context in which to study maternal allocation because helpers create predictably improved conditions during offspring development. Some recent studies on cooperative species showed that females assisted by helpers produced smaller eggs, as the additional food brought by the helpers appeared to compensate for this reduction in egg size. However, it remains unclear how common this effect might be. Also currently unknown is whether females change egg composition when assisted by helpers. This effect is predicted by current maternal allocation theory, but has not been previously investigated. We studied egg mass and contents in sociable weavers (Philetairus socius). We found that egg mass decreased with group size, while fledgling mass did not vary, suggesting that helpers may compensate for the reduced investment in eggs. We found no differences in eggs' carotenoid contents, but females assisted by helpers produced eggs with lower hormonal content, specifically testosterone, androstenedione (A4) and corticosterone levels. Taken together, these results suggest that the environment created by helpers can influence maternal allocation and potentially offspring phenotypes.
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