Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 59, Issue 4, April 2000, Pages 677-688
Animal Behaviour

Review
To nest communally or not to nest communally: a review of rodent communal nesting and nursing

https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1999.1390Get rights and content

Abstract

Communal nesting, the sharing of parental responsibilities between multiple individuals in a nest, is common in many rodents. Upon first glance, this behaviour seems to be selectively disadvantageous. Communal care not only involves energetic costs, but may also be subject to cheating behaviour. Despite abundant literature, many questions remain regarding advantages gained by females that form nesting groups. I discuss the communal nesting of eusocial, singular and plural breeding rodents. I first clarify the distinction between communal nesting and thermoregulatory huddling. I then review two major groups of hypotheses (‘ecological constraints’ and ‘benefits of philopatry’) that are used to explain the occurrence of communal nesting in rodents. Most likely, these hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. Regardless of the main selective pressure(s) acting on communal nesting, the indirect components of inclusive fitness that result from nest sharing most likely influence the formation and maintenance of communal nests. Communal nesting and nursing (the sharing of milk with nonoffspring) are under different selective regimes and thus, must be evaluated separately. I review adaptive and nonadaptive hypotheses for rodent communal nursing. I argue that communal nursing may not be adaptive as mothers may be forced to share milk with nonoffspring in large communal nests (i.e. communal nursing may be a cost associated with communal nesting). In conclusion, I propose directions for future study that may improve our understanding of communal nesting and nursing in the wild.

References (127)

  • G Perrigo et al.

    Behavioral and physiological responses of female house mice to foraging variation

    Physiology and Behavior

    (1985)
  • K.B Armitage et al.

    Communal nesting in yellow-bellied marmots

  • R Axelrod et al.

    The evolution of cooperation

    Science

    (1981)
  • R.J Berry et al.

    Gene flow and hybridization following introduction of Mus domesticus into an established population

    Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

    (1990)
  • D.T Blumstein et al.

    Cooperative breeding in marmots

    Oikos

    (1999)
  • C.C.K Boyce et al.

    Population biology of Microtus arvalis. I. Lifetime reproductive success of solitary and grouped breeding females

    Journal of Animal Ecology

    (1988)
  • R.A Brett

    The population structure of naked mole-rat colonies

  • F.H Bronson

    The reproductive ecology of the house mouse

    Quarterly Review of Biology

    (1979)
  • J.L Brown

    Alternative routes to sociality in jays with a theory for the evolution of altruism and communal breeding

    American Zoologist

    (1974)
  • H Burda et al.

    Evolution of eusociality in Bathyergidae. The case of the giant mole rats (Cryptomys mechowi)

    Naturwissenschaften

    (1993)
  • T Caraco et al.

    A game between communal breeders: when is food sharing stable?

    Journal of Theoretical Biology

    (1986)
  • E.L Charnov et al.

    Vole population cycles: a case for kin selection?

    Oecologia

    (1980)
  • T.S Choate

    Behavioural studies on some Rhodesian rodents

    Zoologica Africana

    (1972)
  • T.H Clutton-Brock et al.

    Fitness costs of gestation and lactation in wild mammals

    Nature

    (1989)
  • B.J Crespi et al.

    The definition of eusociality

    Behavioural Ecology

    (1995)
  • L.A Ebensperger

    Strategies and counterstrategies to infanticide in mammals

    Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

    (1998)
  • S.T Emlen

    The evolution of helping. I. An ecological constraints model

    American Naturalist

    (1982)
  • S.T Emlen

    An evolutionary theory of the family

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.

    (1995)
  • C.G Faulkes et al.

    The physiology of a reproductive dictatorship: regulation of male and female reproduction by a single breeding female in colonies of naked mole-rats

  • R.W Fitzgerald et al.

    Social organization of a free-ranging population of pine voles, Microtus pinetorum

    Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

    (1983)
  • C.L Fogden

    Mother–young behaviour at grey seal breeding beaches

    Journal of Zoology

    (1971)
  • J.C Garza et al.

    Social structure of the mound-building mouse Mus spicilegus revealed by genetic analysis with microsatellites

    Molecular Ecology

    (1997)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    Communal nesting in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster): formation, composition and persistence of communal groups

    Canadian Journal of Zoology

    (1997)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    Mating system and population fluctuations of the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster

    American Zoologist

    (1987)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    The effects of predation of snakes on social organization of the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster

    American Midland Naturalist

    (1990)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    Pattern of nest occupancy of the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster, in different habitats

    American Midland Naturalist

    (1992)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    Blarina brevicauda as a predator on nestling voles

    Journal of Mammalogy

    (1992)
  • L.L Getz et al.

    Social organization of the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster

    Journal of Mammalogy

    (1993)
  • J.L Gittleman

    Functions of communal care in mammals

  • R.H Glaser et al.

    Energetics and nesting behaviour of the northern white-footed mouse Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis

    Physiological Zoology

    (1975)
  • W.D Hamilton

    The genetical evolution of social behaviour

    Journal of Theoretical Biology

    (1964)
  • A Hanwell et al.

    Physiological effects of lactation on the mother

    Symposium of the Zoological Society of London

    (1977)
  • M Happold

    Social behavior of the conilurine rodents (Muridae) of Australia

    Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie

    (1976)
  • R.W Hill

    The altricial/precocial contrast in the thermal relations and energetics of small mammals

  • J.E Hofmann et al.

    Home range overlap and nest cohabitation of male and female prairie voles

    American Midland Naturalist

    (1984)
  • J.L Hoogland et al.

    Communal nursing in prairie dogs

    Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

    (1989)
  • M.E Jakobson

    Physiological adaptation

    Symposium of the Zoological Society of London

    (1981)
  • F.J Jannett

    The density dependent formation of extended maternal families of the montane vole, Microtus montanus nanus

    Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

    (1978)
  • J.U.M Jarvis

    Eusociality in a mammal: cooperative breeding in naked mole-rat colonies

    Science

    (1981)
  • J.U.M Jarvis et al.

    Eusociality has evolved independently in two genera of bathyergid mole rats but occurs in no other subterranean mammal

    Behavioral Ecology Sociobiology

    (1993)
  • Cited by (222)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    f1

    Correspondence: L. D. Hayes, Bates College, Department of Biology, 44 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, ME 04240, U.S.A. (email:[email protected]).

    View full text