title: Non-kin cooperation in bats.
abstract: Many bats are extremely social. In some cases, individuals remain together for years or even decades and engage in mutually beneficial behaviours among non-related individuals. Here, we summarize ways in which unrelated bats cooperate while roosting, foraging, feeding or caring for offspring. For each situation, we ask if cooperation involves an investment, and if so, what mechanisms might ensure a return. While some cooperative outcomes are likely a by-product of selfish behaviour as they are in many other vertebrates, we explain how cooperative investments can occur in several situations and are particularly evident in food sharing among common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) and alloparental care by greater spear-nosed bats (Phyllostomus hastatus). Fieldwork and experiments on vampire bats indicate that sharing blood with non-kin expands the number of possible donors beyond kin and promotes reciprocal help by strengthening long-term social bonds. Similarly, more than 25 years of recapture data and field observations of greater spear-nosed bats reveal multiple cooperative investments occurring within stable groups of non-kin. These studies illustrate how bats can serve as models for understanding how cooperation is regulated in social vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA wilkinso@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Gerald S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7799-8444
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.affiliation: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-00153, Panama City, Republic of Panama.
authors.forename: Gerald G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Kirsten M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D008954:Models, Biological; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: by-product mutualism; group augmentation; partner choice; reciprocity; spear-nosed bats; vampire bats