The ability to recognize close relatives in order to cooperate or to avoid inbreeding is widespread across all taxa. One accepted mechanism for kin recognition in birds is associative learning of visual or acoustic cues. However, how could individuals ever learn to recognize unfamiliar kin? Here, we provide the first evidence for a novel mechanism of kin recognition in birds. Zebra finch (Taeni...

Relatives play an important role in human reproduction according to evolutionary theories of reproductive behavior, but previous empirical studies show large differences in the effects of kin on fertility outcomes. In our paper we examine the effect of co-resident kin and non-kin on the length of birth intervals over the reproductive life course of Dutch women born between 1842 and 1920. We est...

Social interactions among individuals are wide-spread, both in natural and domestic populations. As a result, trait values of individuals may be affected by genes in other individuals, a phenomenon known as Indirect Genetic Effects (IGEs). IGEs can be estimated using linear mixed models. The traditional IGE-model assumes that an individual interacts equally with all its partners, whether kin or...

Since W. D. Hamilton's seminal work on the evolution of sociality, a large body of research has accumulated on how kin selection might explain the evolution of cooperation in many group-living species. Our study examined the evolutionary basis of philopatry and cooperation; specifically, whether individuals benefit from the presence of close kin. We applied an individual fitness approach to a 1...

This paper investigates the impact of kin on child survival in a matrilineal society in Malawi. Women usually live in close proximity to their matrilineal kin in this agricultural community, allowing opportunities for helping behavior between matrilineal relatives. However, there is little evidence that matrilineal kin are beneficial to children. On the contrary, child mortality rates appear to...

The widespread belief that kin selection is necessary for the evolution of cooperative breeding in vertebrates has recently been questioned. These doubts have primarily arisen because of the paucity of unequivocal evidence for kin preferences in cooperative behaviour. Using the cooperative breeding system of long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) in which kin and non-kin breed within each socia...

Mammals commonly avoid mating with maternal kin, probably as a result of selection for inbreeding avoidance. Mating with paternal kin should be selected against for the same reason. However, identifying paternal kin may be more difficult than identifying maternal kin in species where the mother mates with more than one male. Selection should nonetheless favour a mechanism of paternal kin recogn...

BACKGROUND Previous research suggests that kin availability may be correlated with reproductive outcomes, but it is not clear that a causal relationship underlies these findings. Further, there is substantial variation in how kin availability is measured. OBJECTIVE We attempt to identify whether different measures of kin availability influence how kin affect reproductive outcomes and whether th...

Kin recognition can drive kin selection and the evolution of social behaviour. In zebrafish (Danio rerio, Hamilton 1822), kin recognition is based on olfactory and visual imprinting processes. If larvae are exposed to visual and chemical cues of kin at day 5 and 6 post fertilization they will recognize kin throughout life, while exposure to non-kin fails to trigger any recognition. Chemical imp...