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Dominance, not kinship, determines individual position within the communal roosts of a cooperatively breeding bird

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Abstract

Kin selection has played an important role in the evolution and maintenance of cooperative breeding behaviour in many bird species. However, although relatedness has been shown to affect the investment decisions of helpers in such systems, less is known about the role that kin discrimination plays in other contexts, such as communal roosting. Individuals that roost communally benefit from reduced overnight heat loss, but the exact benefit derived depends on an individual's position in the roost which in turn is likely to be influenced by its position in its flock's dominance hierarchy. We studied the effects of kinship and other factors (sex, age, body size and flock sex ratio) on an individual's roosting position and dominance status in captive flocks of cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus. We found that overall, kinship had little influence on either variable tested; kinship had no effect on a bird's position in its flock's dominance hierarchy and the effect of kinship on roosting position was dependent on the bird's size. Males were generally dominant over females and birds were more likely to occupy preferred roosting positions if they were male, old and of high status. In this context, the effect of kinship on social interactions appears to be less important than the effects of other factors, possibly due to the complex kin structure of winter flocks compared to breeding groups.

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Acknowledgments

We thank numerous landowners including Doncaster and Sheffield City Councils, Yorkshire Water and Hallamshire Golf Club for allowing us to catch and watch birds on their land. We also thank the NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility in Sheffield for access to the lab and expertise, numerous undergraduates for their assistance with behavioural observations and two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Financial support for this study was provided by the Natural Environment Research Council, to which we are most grateful.

Ethical standards

This study complied with the laws of the UK. Temporary housing of birds in captivity and all observations were conducted under English Nature licence (Project licence numbers 20053050 and 20021791) and facilities for housing birds complied with UK Home Office regulations.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Clare J. Napper.

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Communicated by J. A. Graves

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Napper, C.J., Sharp, S.P., McGowan, A. et al. Dominance, not kinship, determines individual position within the communal roosts of a cooperatively breeding bird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 2029–2039 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1613-7

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