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Behavioural ecology

Love thine enemy?

Nature volume 391, pages 635–637 (1998)Cite this article

The study of cooperation and conflict between individual animals is an active and exciting field. One of the founding fathers of behavioural ecology, Nick Davies, concludes his book on dunnock society1 by saying that the lesson to be learnt is “⃛ that we should put as much effort into our bird watching, to see how individuals behave, as we do into detailed measurements of factors influencing reproductive success”. Indeed, the comprehensive study of polygyny in the oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), reported by Heg and van Treuren2 on page 687 of this issue, does just that. This is no small achievement, given that polygyny — where one male is mated to two (or more) females — is rare in this species of bird.

Heg and van Treuren addressed this question, and a large data set allowed them to rule out several hypotheses. For instance, cooperation might result from kin selection. However, evidence from microsatellite DNA convincingly showed that the cooperating females are not more genetically related than one might expect by chance. Moreover, females don't benefit from polygyny in terms of immediate reproduction or survival — the main benefit may be in terms of social status. Usurping non-breeding females that can't win, but manage to stay put in a trio, are much more likely to breed in or near the territory the next year than the average non-breeding female.

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Figure 1: Two's company — two pairs of oystercatchers contest territorial space.

JAN VAN DE KAM

References

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  1. Bruno J. Ens is at the Institute of Forestry and Nature Research (IBN-DLO), 1790 AD Den Burg (Texel), PO Box 167, The Netherlands

    Bruno J. Ens

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Ens, B. Love thine enemy?. Nature 391, 635–637 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35497

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