10.25375/uct.12725405.v1
Amanda Bourne
Amanda
Bourne
Susan Cunningham
Susan
Cunningham
Claire Spottiswoode
Claire
Spottiswoode
Amanda Ridley
Amanda
Ridley
Hot droughts compromise interannual survival across all group sizes in a cooperatively breeding bird
University of Cape Town
2020
Sociality
Unpredictable environments
Cooperative breeding
Climate change
Southern pied babbler
Hot drought
Group size
Ecology not elsewhere classified
2020-07-30 14:30:33
Dataset
https://zivahub.uct.ac.za/articles/dataset/Hot_droughts_compromise_interannual_survival_across_all_group_sizes_in_a_cooperatively_breeding_bird/12725405
Climate change is affecting animal populations
around the world and one relatively unexplored aspect of species vulnerability is whether and to what extent responses to environmental stressors might be mitigated by variation in group size in social species. We used a 15-year dataset for a cooperatively-breeding bird, the southern pied babbler <i>Turdoides bicolor</i>, to determine the impact of temperature, rainfall, and group size on body mass change and interannual survival in both juveniles and adults. Hot and dry conditions were associated with reduced juvenile growth, mass loss in adults, and compromised survival between years in both juveniles (86% reduction in interannual survival) and adults (60% reduction in interannual survival). Individuals
across all group sizes experienced similar effects of climatic conditions. Larger group sizes may not buffer individual group members against the impacts of hot
and dry conditions, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity in
future.