Michael Jennions and David Macdonald are at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Dept of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX13PS.
Trends Ecol Evol. 1994 Mar;9(3):89-93. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(94)90202-X.
Cooperative breeding in mammals covers a diversity of breeding systems. In all cases, however, Individuals assist in the rearing of offspring other than their own. Recent research has highlighted some of the factors responsible for variation both within and between species. While it is possible to generalize about the selective pressures leading to cooperative breeding, doing so may obscure important contrasts between taxa. Of course, inclusive-fitness models explain the generalities of cooperative breeding, but differences in ecology, physiology and life history may result in distinctive processes operating in different taxa-data only likely to emerge from long-term field studies.
哺乳动物的合作繁殖涵盖了多种繁殖系统。然而，在所有情况下，个体都会帮助抚养自己以外的后代。最近的研究强调了导致物种内和物种间变异的一些因素。虽然可以概括导致合作繁殖的选择压力，但这样做可能会掩盖分类群之间的重要差异。当然，适合度综合模型解释了合作繁殖的一般规律，但生态、生理和生活史的差异可能导致不同分类群中存在独特的作用过程——这些数据可能只有通过长期的实地研究才能得出。
