Award details

Communication negotiation and the division of labour in cooperative mammals

Reference	BB/C006070/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Timothy Clutton-Brock
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Rufus Johnstone
Institution	University of Cambridge
Department	Zoology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	300,598
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/2005
End date	31/01/2009
Duration	46 months

Abstract

We shall extend game theory models of negotiation between parents and offspring over the level of parental care to incorporate helpers and shall incorporate the possibility that offspring adjust their begging rates to the responses of helpers and parents. We shall test their predictions using a combination of experiments and quantitative observation of free-ranging but habituated groups of meerkats for which full life-history data are already available. Specifically, we shall (1) assess the relative effects of variation in the needs and begging behaviour of pups on different categories of carers (2) explore the effects of variation in begging behaviour on the probability that helpers and parents will feed particular pups and assess the extent to which helpers and breeders discriminate between pups on the basis of hunger, body mass or sex (3) determine whether pups strategically adjust their begging rates in relation to variation in the responses of helpers (4) determine whether pups beg competitively or cooperate to maintain the motivation of helpers.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	Neuroscience and Behaviour
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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