SOCIAL EVOLUTION

Animal families are transient animal societies in miniature. Their simple structure makes them ideal for experiments analyzing the evolution of conflict and cooperation between kin, non-kin and even among species. In our recent work, for example, we have investigated how parent-offspring conflict over provisioning is resolved and how provisioning adults cooperate to rear a brood. Most recently we have been focusing on parental care that is a form of social immunity (ie an immune defence mounted for the benefit of others) by investigating how adults cooperate to share the costs of mounting a social immune response.

Current research questions include:

How does maternal provisioning of the avian egg influence the outcome of family conflicts?
People involved: Camilla Hinde, Rufus Johnstone
Recent papers: Russell et al 2007, Buchanan et al 2007, Kilner & Hinde 2008, Hinde et al 2009, Hinde et al 2010

How flexible are parental provisioning rules?
People involved: Camilla Hinde, Rose Thorogood
Recent papers: Hinde & Kilner 2007, Russell et al 2008, Hinde et al 2009, Thorogood et al 2011

What determines the costs of parental care?
People involved: Giuseppe Boncoraglio, Sheena Cotter, Ana Duarte
Recent papers: Ward et al 2009, Cotter & Kilner 2010a, Cotter et al 2011

The evolution of social immunity
People involved: Sheena Cotter, Ana Duarte, Martin Welch (Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge)
Recent papers: Cotter & Kilner 2010a, b, Cotter et al 2010

Funded by NERC, The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society, Marie Curie Research Fellowship

CO-EVOLUTION

With Naomi Langmore at the Australian National University, we are studying co-evolutionary arms races between Australian bronze-cuckoos and their hosts. We have discovered that Australian bronze-cuckoo hosts are unusual because their chief line of defence against cuckoos involves rejecting cuckoo chicks, rather than cuckoo eggs. Current research questions include:

What behavioural rules govern cuckoo chick desertion?
Recent papers: Langmore et al 2003, 2009a, Kilner 2010

What counter-measures have cuckoos evolved?
Recent papers: Langmore et al 2007, 2008, 2009b, Langmore and Kilner 2007, 2009, Broom et al 2008, Langmore & Kilner 2010

What are the evolutionary consequences of brood parasite-host interactions?
Recent papers: Kilner 2005, Hauber & Kilner 2007, Langmore et al 2008, Langmore et al 2011, Kilner & Langmore 2011

What is the genetic basis of these adaptations and counter-adaptations?
People involved: Jim Briskie (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), Naomi Langmore, Nick Mundy, Rose Thorogood, Neil Walsh
Recent papers: Langmore et al 2011

Funded by NERC, The Australian Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society

SENSORY ECOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION

Bird nests provide a constant, quantifiable micro-environment for communication between offspring and their parents, which is ideal for investigating the evolution of animal signals. Signals sent in this environment include the patterning and colour of eggshells, as well as visual and acoustic nestling begging displays. Current research questions include:

How do colourful displays develop?
People involved: John Ewen, Carita Lindstedt, Martin Stevens, Rose Thorogood, Leila Walker
Recent papers: Thorogood et al 2008

What is the function of colourful nestling displays?
People involved: Naomi Langmore, Martin Stevens, Rose Thorogood
Recent papers: Kilner 2006a, Langmore et al 2011, Thorogood et al 2011

What is the function of egg colour and patterning?
People involved: Naomi Langmore, Martin Stevens, Cassie Stoddard
Recent papers: Kilner 2006, Langmore et al 2009, Langmore & Kilner 2009

Funded by NERC, The Australian Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society