Social Evolution
Social Evolution
AND ITS IMPACTS ON LIFE-HISTORIES
Long-term field studies of social vertebrates
& lab studies of microbes
We ask evolutionary & mechanistic questions about Cooperation and Conflict & their impacts on Life-Histories
We do this through long-term field studies of wild social vertebrates, such as cooperatively breeding
sparrow-weavers in the Kalahari desert, and experimental work on social microbes.
Our research on Social Evolution spans two broad themes:
THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION
Selection on Cooperation in the Wild
Selection on Cooperation in Variable Environments
Globally, cooperative breeding is associated with highly variable rainfall regimes, suggesting that cooperation may yield particular benefits in such environments. Our long-term field research on sparrow weavers in the Kalahari desert is investigating whether this is the case and why.
Identifying the Benefits and Costs of Cooperation
Our research investigates the diverse mechanisms by which cooperation yields its benefits and costs.
We are currently interested in…
- The role of relative fitness returns in fluctuating environments.
- How parental effects shape the benefits of cooperation.
- Whether cooperation can mitigate somatic deterioration.
- How selection acts upon age-structured helping.
- Interactions between cooperation and inbreeding.
Origins of Individual Variation in Cooperation
Genes and the Early-Life Environment
We are investigating how genes and the early life environment interact to shape cooperative tendencies in sparrow-weaver societies, using our long-term social and environmental data, our genetic pedigree and genomic tools.
Trade-offs with other traits
We are investigating the role that trade-offs between cooperation and other fitness-related tactics (such as dispersal and reproduction) may play in yielding individual heterogeneity in cooperation in vertebrate societies and microbial lineages.
We use automated radio-tracking to study local dispersal in cooperative birds, and genomics to investigate its impacts on kin structure and inbreeding.
SOCIAL EFFECTS ON ageing
Effects of reproductive skew on senescence
We are interested in understanding how the extreme reproductive skews seen in highly cooperative animals shape the patterns of senescence.
Effects of cooperation on senescence
We are investigating whether helping behaviour can mitigate somatic deterioration in recipients and stave off ageing, via studies of oxidative stress and telomeres in social animals.
Parental age effects on offspring life-histories
We are interested in the intergenerational effects of ageing (i.e. parental age effects on offspring performance); their patterns, fitness consequences and underlying mechanisms, and the potential for social behaviour to exacerbate or mitigate them.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS…
Mothers in a cooperatively breeding bird increase their pre-natal investment per offspring when they will have more help with post-natal care
Capilla-Lasheras P, Wilson AJ, Young AJ (2023)
PLOS Biology
Altruistic bet-hedging and the evolution of cooperation in a Kalahari bird
Capilla-Lasheras P, Wood EM, Harrison X, Wilson AJ, Young AJ (2021) Science Advances + Nice coverage in PNAS here…
Prolactin and the regulation of parental care and helping behaviour in cooperatively breeding white-browed sparrow weaver societies
Walker LA, Tschirren L, York JE, Sharp PJ, Meddle SL, Young AJ (2023) BioRxiv
Social dominance and rainfall predict telomere dynamics in a cooperative arid-zone bird Wood EM, Capilla-Lasheras P, Cram DL, Walker LA, York JE, Lange A, Hamilton PB, Tyler CR & Young AJ (2021) Molecular Ecology
Explaining negative kin discrimination in a cooperative mammal society Thompson et al. (2017) PNAS
Evolution of sex differences in cooperation: the role of trade-offs with dispersal
Capilla-Lasheras P, Bircher N, Brown AM, Harrison X, Reed T, York JE, Cram DL, Rutz C, Walker L, Naguib M, Young AJ (2023)
BioRxiv
Sex differences in dispersal predict sex differences in helping across cooperative birds and mammals
Fenner P, Currie T, Young AJ (2023)
BioRxiv
Sex differences in senescence: the role of intra-sexual competition in early adulthood
Beirne, Delahay & Young (2015) Proc Roy Soc B
The oxidative costs of reproduction are group-size dependent in a wild cooperative breeder
Cram, Blount & Young (2015) Proc Roy Soc B
Oxidative status and social dominance in a wild
cooperative breeder Cram et al. (2015) Functional Ecology
Workforce effects and the evolution of complex sociality in wild Damaraland mole-rats Young et al. (2015) Am Nat
MAJOR Model Systems:
WHITE-BROWED SPARROW WEAVERS
LIFE-LONG SOCIAL PHENOTYPING | GENETIC PEDIGREE | MOLECULAR TOOLS
This cooperatively breeding bird is our primary model system. We have been continuously monitoring the life-histories of all birds from egg through to senescence in >40 social groups in the Kalahari desert since 2007. We now have >decade of life-history data covering >1700 individuals monitored throughout their lives to date, as well as egg, nestling and cooperative provisioning data from >900 breeding attempts.
Find out more about The Sparrow Weaver Project
EUROPEAN BADGERS
The UK Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) have been monitoring the lives of all individuals in 40 social groups of European badgers for the past 40 years, with a particular focus on their role in bovine tuberculosis dynamics. This work has yielded an incredible longitudinal data set of life-history, morphology, molecular and disease status information on >5000 individuals.
We use this phenomenal model to study the evolution and mechanisms of ageing, and their interactions with sociality and disease, in close collaboration with APHA.
COOPERATIVE MICROBES, MAMMALS & INSECTS...
We also use a range of other social organisms as models, including social microbes, Damaraland mole-rats, banded mongooses and social insects.
