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NICHOLA RAIHANI former member ............................................................................................................................................ Now a Royal Society URF at UCL
PhD Research Cooperation and conflict in pied babblers In cooperatively breeding species
reproduction is
often
partly or wholly monopolized by a dominant breeding pair. The remaining
individuals
in the group often help to raise the offspring of the dominant pair.
This
represents an evolutionary paradox: why should some individuals forfeit
their
own reproduction instead of ensuring that their genes are passed to the
next
generation? Much research effort to date has focused on explaining how
reproductive altruism can be reconciled with evolutionary theory and
several
plausible explanations for the evolution of cooperative breeding now
exist.
However, in recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that
cooperative
societies are often riven with conflict, and that there is tremendous
variation
in the type of cooperative behaviour and also in the extent to which
individuals within a group contribute to these activities. I
investigate these
areas using a combination of long-term observational data and
experimental
manipulations from a wild population of cooperatively breeding pied
babblers (Turdoides
bicolor).
Publications
N. J. Raihani & A. R. Ridley 2007 Adult
vocalizations during provisioning: offspring response and postfledging
benefits
in wild pied babblers. Animal
Behaviour, 74, 1303-1309.
N. J. Raihani & A. R. Ridley 2007 Variable fledging age according to group size: trade-offs in a cooperatively breeding bird. Biology Letters, 3, 624-627. A. R. Ridley & N. J. Raihani 2007 Facultative response to a kleptoparasite by the cooperatively breeding pied babbler. Behavioral Ecology, 18, 324-330. A. R. Ridley & N. J. Raihani 2007 Variable postfledging care in a cooperative bird: causes and consequences. Behavioral Ecology, 18, 994-1000. A. N. Thornton, N. J. Raihani & A. N. Radford 2007 Teachers in the wild: some clarification. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 11, 272-273. PDF N. J. Raihani & A. R. Ridley 2008 Parental aggression against dependent young results in task partitioning in a cooperative bird. Biology Letters, 4, 23-26. N. J. Raihani & A. R. Ridley 2008 Experimental evidence for teaching in wild pied babblers. Animal Behaviour, 75, 3-11. InFocus + TimesOnline + BBC Wildlife + Science News N.J. Raihani, A.R. Ridley, L.E. Browning, M.J. Nelson-Flower & S. Knowles 2008 Juvenile female aggression in cooperatively breeding pied babblers: causes and contexts. Ethology, 114, 452-458. A. N. Thornton & N. J. Raihani. 2008. The evolution of teaching. Animal Behaviour, 75, 1823-1836. A. R. Ridley, N. J. Raihani & M. J. Nelson-Flower. In press The cost of being alone: the fate of floaters in a population of cooperatively breeding pied babblers Turdoides bicolor. Journal of Avian Biology. A. R. Ridley & N. J. Raihani. In press. Task partitioning increases reproductive output in a cooperative bird. Behavioral Ecology. Popular Science ............................................................................................................................................ Natural
Despots (BBC Radio Four) The Rules
of Life (BBC Radio Four) Kalahari
Minstrels (SABC) Who's
the King of the Castle? (New Scientist Essay Competition 2007
Runner Up; Daily Telegraph / Bayer Science Writer Award 2008 Runner Up) |
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