Plasticity results in delayed breeding in a long-distant migrant seabird.

A major question for conservationists and evolutionary biologists is whether natural populations can adapt to rapid environmental change through micro-evolution or phenotypic plasticity. Making use of 17 years of data from a colony of a long-distant migratory seabird, the common tern (), we examined phenotypic plasticity and the evolutionary potential of breeding phenology, a key reproductive trait. We found that laying date was strongly heritable (0.

Genes, social transmission, but not maternal effects influence responses of wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) to novel-object and novel-food tests.

Using long-term maternal pedigree data, microsatellite analysis, and behavioral tests, we examined whether personality differences in wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) are associated with additive genetic effects, maternal influences, or belonging to a particular social group. Behaviors elicited by novel-object tests were defined by a component related to caution around novel-objects (Ob-PC1) and behaviors elicited by novel food-tests were defined by correlated components related to consummatory responses (Fo-PC1) and caution around novel foods (Fo-PC2). The repeatability of Ob-PC1 was modest and not significant; the repeatabilities of Fo-PC1 and Fo-PC2 were moderate and significant.

Philopatry and within-colony movements in Columbian ground squirrels.

Philopatry and dispersal result in selection of habitat locations that may differ in resources and social environment and thus should influence fitness components like survival and reproduction. We examined short-distance movements of young and adult females from natal or previous nesting sites within a colony of Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada, over a 17-year period. Females of all ages were strongly philopatric, yet a few (10-15%) exhibited movements that took them to new home ranges.

Kin selection in Columbian ground squirrels: direct and indirect fitness benefits.

Empirical and theoretical studies have supported kin selection by demonstrating nepotism or modelling its conditions and consequences. As an alternative, we previously found that female Columbian ground squirrels had greater direct fitness when more close kin were present. Extending those results, we used population matrix methods to calculate minimum estimates of individual fitness, estimated direct and indirect components of fitness, estimated inclusive fitness by adding the direct fitness (stripped of estimated influences of the social environment) and indirect fitness components together, and finally looked for inclusive fitness benefits of associations with close kin who seem to be 'genial neighbours'.

Kin selection in Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus): littermate kin provide individual fitness benefits.

Since W. D. Hamilton's seminal work on the evolution of sociality, a large body of research has accumulated on how kin selection might explain the evolution of cooperation in many group-living species.