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Research Lines
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Since 1999, we have been investigating several aspects of cooperative behaviour of carrion crows. In general, the apparently altruistic behaviour of individuals that help raising young that are not their own offspring represents a paradox for the Dawinian theory of evolution through natural selection, because any behaviour that reduces individual survival or reproductive success is expected to disappear rapidly from the population. |
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Surprisingly enough, cooperation in raising young occurs every year in about 75% of crow territories, where 1 to 3 helpers "waste" energy and time in raising chicks that are not their own offspring.
In order to understand why some individuals act as babysitter of others' offspring instead of finding a mate and breeding themselves, we have tried to answer the following questions:
1. Why do offspring delay dispersal and stay with their parents instead of looking for a mate and a breeding territory, even when they are able to find food independently and they are sexually mature? Find out what we have discovered about delayed dispersal
2. Who are the immigrant crow that associate with the nuclear families, and are they truly non-breeding helpers? Find out what we have discovered about immigrant-resident association
3. Why do the helpers help? What are the benefits and costs of helping at the nest? Find out what we have discovered about the benefits and costs of cooperation at the nest
All results described here are presented in scientific articles published in several journals.
Here you can find a complete list of our publications of cooperative crow.
Which new questions are we tackling now? Read about brood parasitism, social learning and cognitive abilities in "current research" and go to our personal pages to find out our new lines of investigation.
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