Alloparental care is a common form of \"altruistic\" behavior in animals. Allopa

Question

Alloparental care is a common form of "altruistic" behavior in animals. Alloparental care occurs when an individual provides care to young that are not their own offspring. The animals providing this care are often referred to as "helpers." In many species, these helpers are adults who could produce offspring but do not, raising intriguing questions about the fitness benefits of helping rather than producingg offspring. Both silverbacked and golden jackals display alloparental care. In each of these species, some individuals remain with their parents in to adulthood. Rather than producing offspring of their own, these younger animals help their parents to rear additional pups r 0.5 a. Reviewing the data from these animals, researchers have realized that Female A died and was replaced by Female B, who then went on to produce offspring and grand offspring with her mate. At the time that Female A died, she had a nearly-adult son, Male D, who was at the age at which young jackals either disperse or choose to remain with their parents. Should the death of Female A make it more or less likely that Male D will remain with his father and help to rear more jackal pups? Indicate if Male D is more or less likely to be philopatric and then explain your answer in terms of potential fitness benefits to Male D b. The article states that the percentage of surviving offspring that remain in thein natal area and act as alloparents is greater for golden than for silverbacked jackals What does this difference in behavior suggest about the relative importance of kin selection in these species? Indicate which species should experience more intense kin selection and then explain your answer in terms of the behavioral differences between species described in the article

Explanation / Answer

A) The death of the female A would definitely pose an impact on the male D for staying and helping the father in the absence of the mother for rearing the more jackal pups. As the jackals show the alloparental care and despite of having the potential of producing the offsprings, help their parents in rearing the younger pups. This alloparental care is realted to the fitness benefits which are provide by the helper individuals to the younger individuals. If the young male was philopatric, then littlle or no potential benefits of the fitness would be shown by the helper individuals.

B) The percentage of the offspring which would behave as the alloparents is higher for the golden jackals as compared to the silver backed jackals. This suggests that the natural selection favors the golden jackals for the development of the alloparents. this might be happen due to the specific characters possess by the golden jackals which would favor their selection upon the silverbacked jackals. The golden jackals would face more intense kin selection.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.