Males Cooperate to Attract a Mate

Biological Strategy

Lance-tailed manakin

Sherry Ritter

Image: Jei Pov / Flickr / Some rights reserved

Cooperate Within the Same Species

A species is a group of organisms capable of breeding to produce fertile offspring. When individuals within a species undertake activities that benefit one another, that cooperation benefits not just the individuals, but also local and wider populations of that species. Collaborating in activities such as finding food, controlling parasites, and protecting from predators enhances overall survival. To cooperate, there must be enough benefit to an individual, and especially to a population, to justify any risk taken by individuals. Through cooperation, risk is distributed among individuals and the benefits to the community are greater than the sum of the benefits to individuals. An example is birds that gather in flocks, a cooperative activity more beneficial than acting alone. While some birds forage, others watch for predators. When one finds food, others also feed on it. Despite potential short-term competition for an individual that finds food, over the long-term, that same individual benefits when others find different food sources.

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Birds

Class Aves (“bird”): Eagles, hawks, sparrows, parrots

Birds are evolutionary engineering marvels. They are descended from dinosaurs, but are far from our idea of heavy, scaly reptiles. Of the specific adaptions that set them apart, most notable is flight—although some mammals can fly, birds take the prize for abundance in the skies. Many birds have hollow, lightweight skeletons and specially-designed wings to help them stay aloft. They also have feathers made of keratin that help them stay warm, attract mates, and improve navigation and aerodynamics in flight. In contrast to their dinosaur ancestors, they lack true teeth and have replaced them with specialized beaks and bills.

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Male lance-tailed manakins attract a female by doing a cooperative courtship dance.

In a forest in Panama, two male birds wait on a bare branch. They’ve already cleared a stage for their upcoming performance by removing leaves from neighboring plants. Suddenly a female lands on the branch and the two males go into action. Over the next few minutes, these two males put on a coordinated courtship dance with 11 different moves and 9 types of songs and calls. But these two birds aren’t competing, they’re cooperating. Only one, the alpha, will get to mate with the female. The alpha and beta males may work together for up to six years. Eventually, the beta might move on to become an alpha.

For fun, look for the dance moves shown in Figure 6 of this paper.

These birds are lance-tailed manakins. With their black bodies, bright blue capes, and dark red cap, they are conspicuous among the greenery of the forest. Like other species of manakins, a beta male helps the alpha put on a courtship display. Researchers are trying to figure out what the advantages are to being a beta. Not all alpha birds have a beta helper and some birds skip being a beta helper and immediately become alphas. The alpha and beta birds are not related to one another, so there’s no clear genetic advantage. One possible advantage is that the betas gain experience that makes them better at courtship displays later in life.

Cooperative courtship is one type of cooperative breeding, where other members of a species help the breeder to succeed, either through courtship or caring for young. Cooperative breeding is widespread in the animal world. It’s found in almost 90 species, mostly birds, fish, and mammals. It may just be one route to successful breeding, or there may be advantages scientists haven’t yet found. More and more, scientists are realizing that cooperation among and between species plays a big role in nature, from tiny microbes to giant whales. We also see it in humans, from people helping other people meet their future life partners to organizations and industries finding ways to work together and share resources.

watch how another species, the blue manakin, uses multiple partners to help them attract a mate:

Last Updated November 3, 2020

References

“The cooperatively displaying lance-tailed manakin Chiroxiphia lanceolata offers an excellent opportunity to investigate the role of cooperative experience in influencing success as a breeder. Male lance-tailed manakins display for females in a lek mating system, and form long-term male-male partnerships to cooperate in complex courtship displays. In these partnerships, dominant alpha breeders are assisted by subordinate beta helpers in both song and dance displays. Previous work in this system has shown that male partners are not close relatives and that, with extremely rare exceptions, only alpha males mate…Alpha males increase their average siring success with each year of alpha tenure, and this effect is distinct from an independent influence of individual age on reproduction. The positive influence of alpha experience on reproductive success suggests that cooperation as a non-breeding beta might provide an alternative way to gain such experience. At advanced ages, reproductive gains from increased experience are offset by senescence in siring success. Although most alphas have beta partners, not all males serve as betas before attaining alpha status. Though previous work has suggested that beta experience increases males’ chances of becoming an alpha, it remains unclear whether and how beta experience affects success once males attain alpha status.” (DuVal 2013:885)

“This study provides the first evidence that cooperative experience as a beta does not increase males’ success in the alpha role. Instead, cooperation as a beta is an alternative route to reproductive success in lance-tailed manakins, and equivalent fitness benefits can be achieved by males that move directly into the breeding role without forming cooperative alliances. The data presented here demonstrate that the non-cooperative route to attaining breeding status is a viable and widespread strategy, with nearly half of males not serving as betas before becoming alphas (though most alphas have beta partners).” (DuVal 2013:892)

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