In cooperative breeding systems, some individuals help to raise offspring that are not their
own. While early explanations for such altruistic behaviour were predominantly based on kin …

The general belief that cooperation and altruism in social groups result primarily from kin
selection has recently been challenged, not least because results from cooperatively …

How is an altruistic act favored by natural selection if it incurs a cost to the actor? As the
behavior would have a detrimental impact on the actor's reproductive success, the genes …

The evolution of cooperative breeding has been traditionally attributed to the effect of kin
selection. While there is increasing empirical evidence that direct fitness benefits are …

Ecology is a fundamental driving force for the evolutionary transition from solitary living to
breeding cooperatively in groups. However, the fact that both benign and harsh, as well as …

Predation risk is a major ecological factor selecting for group living. It is largely ignored,
however, as an evolutionary driver of social complexity and cooperative breeding, which is …

Social evolution is tightly linked to dispersal decisions, but the ecological and social factors
selecting for philopatry or dispersal often remain obscure. Elucidating selection mechanisms …

Anthropogenic (man-made) noise is a global problem and present in virtually all terrestrial
and aquatic environments. To date, most studies investigating the potential impact of this …

How can the stunning diversity of social systems and behaviours seen in nature be
explained? Drawing on social evolution theory, experimental evidence and studies …

The group augmentation (GA) hypothesis states that if helpers in cooperatively breeding
animals raise the reproductive success of the group, the benefits of living in a resulting …