Additional Discussion Points…

1. Additional Discussion Points… • Many other species of birds breed cooperatively, just as these scrubwrens do. Typically, young males remain in the nest and help raise their younger siblings. Under what environmental conditions would this be a more viable strategy than for the young male to move out and start his own family (which would increase his absolute fitness)? • Does kin selection seems to provide a credible explanation for why young males help their fathers raise babies that they themselves did not father? • Group selection would say that the reason that we now observe many bird species in which young males help raise siblings is because these are the groups that have persisted. Does this argument seem credible? If so, why might we see more cases of young males cooperating with their fathers than young males cooperating with other, unrelated young males?