Costs of Cooperative Breeding
The primary disadvantage of cooperative breeding is the cost of expending energy towards raising the offspring of another individual. A study conducted by Cornwallis et al. showed a strong negative correlation between the evolution of promiscuity and the evolution of cooperative breeding, suggesting that cooperative breeding is more likely to evolve in populations where females mate with fewer males. For species with multiple-mating systems, the time and energy spent raising another’s offspring would prove too costly for cooperative breeding to be selected for.
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