Gadagkar, R (2019) Cooperation. [Book Chapter]
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Abstract
Darwin׳s theory of natural selection prepares us to expect competitive selfishness rather than cooperation and altruism in the living world. After all how can an individual that pays a cost to help another individual be expected to win the race to survive and reproduce, compared to one that exhibits a single-minded devotion to personal survival and reproduction? And yet we find many examples of animals engaged in intraspecific cooperation and altruism. Honey bee workers die in the process of stinging predators that might destroy their nests. Helpers at the nests of cooperative birds postpone rearing their own offspring in order to assist their parents to raise additional brood. Ground squirrels risk attracting the attention of predators by giving an alarm call to warn their neighbors. How can natural selection promote such behavior? Why is it that such individuals do not get eliminated even though they may lower their own chances of survival and reproduction? © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Item Type: | Book Chapter |
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Publication: | Encyclopedia of Ecology: Volume 1-4, Second Edition |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Additional Information: | The copyright for this article belongs to the Elsevier. |
Department/Centre: | Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences |
Date Deposited: | 04 Nov 2023 08:39 |
Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2023 08:39 |
URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/83111 |
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