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The effects of human-caused mortality on mammalian cooperative breeders: A synthesis

David Edward Ausband·Peter F. Rebholz·Lindsay Petrillo
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Abstract

Human-caused mortality can be pervasive and even highly selective for individuals in groups of cooperative breeders. Many studies of cooperative breeders, however, do not address human-caused mortality. Similarly, studies focused on the effects of human-caused mortality on wildlife populations often do not consider the ecology of cooperative breeders. We searched the literature and identified 58 studies where human-caused mortality affected a group characteristic, vital rate, or population state of a cooperative breeder. Of studies reporting population growth or decline, 80% reported a link between human-caused mortality and population declines in cooperative breeders. Such studies often did not identify the mechanism behind population declines, but 28% identified concurrent declines in adult survival and another 21% reported concurrent declines in recruitment or reproduction. There was little overlap between the cooperative breeding and human-caused mortality literatures, limiting our ability to accrue knowledge. Future work would be beneficial if it ( i ) identified the vital rate(s) causing population declines, ( ii ) leveraged management actions such as lethal removal to ask questions about the ecology of group-living in cooperative breeders, and ( iii ) used insights from cooperative breeding theory to inform management actions and conservation of group-living species.

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David Edward Ausband, Peter F. Rebholz, Lindsay Petrillo. 2024-09-02. The effects of human-caused mortality on mammalian cooperative breeders: A synthesis. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13133

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