Publications by authors named "Ettore Camerlenghi"

Cooperation may emerge from intrinsic factors such as social structure and extrinsic factors such as environmental conditions. Although these factors might reinforce or counteract each other, their interaction remains unexplored in animal populations. Studies on multilevel societies suggest a link between social structure, environmental conditions and individual investment in cooperative behaviours.

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The literature on mixed-species flocks references a wide variety of bird associations. These studies, however, have used an array of unstructured characteristics to describe flocks, ranging from the temporal occurrence of flocking to the identity and behavioural features of constituent members, with little consensus on which key traits define and characterize a mixed-species flock. Moreover, although most studies report species-specific roles, there is no clear consensus about what these roles signify nor how to define them.

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Multilevel societies are formed when stable groups of individuals spatially overlap and associate preferentially with other groups, producing a hierarchical social structure. Once thought to be exclusive to humans and large mammals, these complex societies have recently been described in birds. However, it remains largely unclear what benefits individuals gain by forming multilevel societies.

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Documenting patterns of spatiotemporal change in hyper-diverse communities remains a challenge for tropical ecology yet is increasingly urgent as some long-term studies have shown major declines in bird communities in undisturbed sites. In 1982, Terborgh et al. quantified the structure and organisation of the bird community in a 97-ha.

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Multilevel societies (MLSs), where social levels are hierarchically nested within each other, are considered one of the most complex forms of animal societies. Although thought to mainly occurs in mammals, it is suggested that MLSs could be under-detected in birds. Here, we propose that the emergence of MLSs could be common in cooperatively breeding birds, as both systems are favoured by similar ecological and social drivers.

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Information about predation risk is of fundamental value in biological communities. Because many prey species have shared predators, eavesdropping on other species' alarms is a widely recognized mechanism underlying the formation of mixed-species groups. However, information transfer may vary both across and within groups because some species provide higher-quality information about predators than others.

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