• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Desert teamwork explains global pattern of co-operation in birds

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 22, 2021
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
White-browed sparrow weavers
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

A new study from the Kalahari Desert finds that teamwork allows birds to cope with brutally unpredictable environments.

White-browed sparrow weavers

Credit: Andrew Young

A new study from the Kalahari Desert finds that teamwork allows birds to cope with brutally unpredictable environments.

This landmark finding explains the long-standing mystery of why co-operation among birds is associated with unpredictable environments worldwide.

White-browed sparrow weavers live in the Kalahari Desert, where rainfall varies dramatically and food is scarce during dry spells.

The birds live in family groups, with a single breeding pair and up to ten non-breeding “helpers” that assist with chick feeding.

Explaining the evolution of such seemingly selfless behaviour has been a focus of evolutionary research for many years.

The new study, by a research team at the University of Exeter, shows that families with more helpers successfully raise more chicks in dry conditions.

Interestingly, these families are actually less successful in wet conditions than those with fewer helpers – meaning that co-operative helping does not improve overall breeding success, but instead reduces weather-driven variation in breeding success, which can be beneficial in other ways.

“We were really surprised – our findings suggest that the birds co-operate to cope with the unpredictability of their environment,” said Dr Andrew Young, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

“This is an exciting discovery, because other studies have found that co-operative behaviour among birds is associated with unpredictable environments worldwide, especially those with variable rainfall.

“Our findings help to explain this enigmatic global pattern; co-operation may be at its most beneficial in unpredictable environments because it helps families to cope with such tricky conditions.

“To evolutionary biologists, our study is also exciting as it provides the strongest evidence to date for a novel strategy called ‘altruistic bet-hedging’, in which co-operation evolves because it allows organisms to cope with unpredictability.”

Most animal species have evolved to pass on their genes by reproducing, but a process called “kin selection” leads some individuals that can’t breed themselves to help close relatives breed instead, thereby ensuring their family’s genes are passed on.

In white-browed sparrow weaver families, helpers are usually the offspring of the breeding pair – so helping could improve the survival chances of their younger siblings.

“In this case, things are more complicated,” said Dr Pablo Capilla-Lasheras, now at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow.

“We show that in this species co-operation is probably not explained by classical evolutionary theory, because the presence of helpers does not increase the overall reproductive success of relatives.

“Instead, co-operation reduces reproductive variation, helping the birds cope with their unpredictable environment.

“Bet-hedging strategies like this are all about reducing the risk of total failure when you can’t predict what is going to happen.

“Our findings suggest that co-operation may serve that purpose – it allows sparrow weaver families to enjoy some breeding success whatever rainfall conditions they experience.”

The findings, based on 12 years of field work in the Kalahari, also give clues about how different bird species might adapt in the future.

Dr Young explained: “Co-operatively breeding species – those that live in societies with helpers – may be better placed to cope with unpredictable environments, which we expect to become increasingly common under climate change.”

The study found that female helpers were more co-operative (feeding chicks more) than male helpers.

“It is specifically the number of female helpers that affects a family’s ability to cope with unpredictable rainfall conditions; the number of male helpers is less important,” Dr Young said.

“This observation allows us to be more confident that having more helpers – rather than simply living in bigger groups – is the cause of the effects we witnessed.”

The study was carried out on Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in South Africa and was funded by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council.

The paper, published in the journal Science Advances, is entitled: “Altruistic bet-hedging and the evolution of co-operation in a Kalahari bird.”



Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abe8980

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Altruistic bet-hedging and the evolution of co-operation in a Kalahari bird.

Article Publication Date

22-Sep-2021

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Initiative Aims to Halt Decline of Iconic Butterfly Species

Initiative Aims to Halt Decline of Iconic Butterfly Species

October 1, 2025
Revolutionary Algorithm Enhances Disease Classification Using Omics

Revolutionary Algorithm Enhances Disease Classification Using Omics

October 1, 2025

Carnegie Mellon Wins ARPA-H Grant to Develop At-Home Technology for Early Cancer Detection

October 1, 2025

Uncovering How Pathogens Assemble Protein Machinery to Thrive in the Gut

October 1, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    90 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 23
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Monoclonal Antibodies Shield Against Drug-Resistant Klebsiella

High-Frame Ultrasound Reveals Liver Cancer Insights

Impact of Reaction Time on α-MnO₂ in Zinc-Ion Batteries

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.