Cooperative Breeding and Long-Distance Dispersal: A Test Using Vagrant Records |
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Authors: | Caroline L. Rusk Eric L. Walters Walter D. Koenig |
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Affiliation: | 1. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, United States of America.; 2. Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America.; 3. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America.; CNRS, Université de Bourgogne, France, |
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Abstract: | Cooperative breeding is generally associated with increased philopatry and sedentariness, presumably because short-distance dispersal facilitates the maintenance of kin groups. There are, however, few data on long-distance dispersal in cooperative breeders—the variable likely to be important for genetic diversification and speciation. We tested the hypothesis that cooperative breeders are less likely to engage in long-distance dispersal events by comparing records of vagrants outside their normal geographic range for matched pairs (cooperatively vs. non-cooperatively breeding) of North American species of birds. Results failed to support the hypothesis of reduced long-distance dispersal among cooperative breeders. Thus, our results counter the conclusion that the lower rate of speciation among cooperative breeding taxa found in recent analyses is a consequence of reduced vagility. |
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