König B
Universität Würzburg, Germany.
Naturwissenschaften. 1997 Mar;84(3):95-104. doi: 10.1007/s001140050356.
The provision of care to non-offspring in animal societies has attracted substantial scientific attention because of its apparent contradiction to the concept of individual selection. In mammals such cooperative care of alien young has been described for both non-breeding and breeding females. I first review the types of non-offspring care that are known from mammals and then discuss the actual and potential fitness benefits and costs for the donors and recipients of this cooperative behaviour. For many species, however, quantitative analysis is still missing. Non-offspring care provided by non-breeding individuals may best be explained by indirect fitness benefits due to improved reproduction of a related breeder under environmental conditions in which successful direct reproduction is not possible. Cooperative care of young among breeding females is also directed preferentially to non-descendant kin and may have evolved due to mutualistic benefits. Our current knowledge of mammalian cooperative care of the young raises questions that must be answered in order to fully understand the evolution of social behaviour.
在动物社会中，对非后代个体提供照料这一行为因其与个体选择概念明显相悖而吸引了大量科学关注。在哺乳动物中，已观察到非繁殖期雌性和繁殖期雌性都会对非亲幼崽进行这种合作照料。我首先回顾哺乳动物中已知的非后代照料类型，然后讨论这种合作行为对于施予者和接受者实际的以及潜在的适应性益处和成本。然而，对于许多物种而言，仍缺乏定量分析。非繁殖个体提供的非后代照料，或许最好用间接适应性益处来解释，即在无法成功进行直接繁殖的环境条件下，相关繁殖者繁殖成功率提高所带来的益处。繁殖期雌性之间对幼崽的合作照料也优先指向非后代亲属，这可能是由于互利共生的益处而进化而来。我们目前对哺乳动物幼崽合作照料的了解引发了一些问题，要想全面理解社会行为的进化，就必须回答这些问题。
