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Does food sharing in vampire bats demonstrate reciprocity?

Gerald Carter1, Gerald Wilkinson1

  • 1University of Maryland; College Park, MD USA.

Communicative & Integrative Biology
|February 8, 2014
PubMed
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Reciprocal altruism in vampire bats is complex. While food sharing suggests cooperation, proving direct reciprocity requires observing responses to non-reciprocation in these fascinating mammals.

Keywords:
cooperationfood sharingreciprocityvampire bats

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Behavioral ecology

Background:

  • Reciprocal altruism in animal societies is often debated due to definitional issues and challenges in establishing causation.
  • Food sharing in common vampire bats is a classic example, but alternative explanations challenge this view.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review factors predicting food sharing in vampire bats using existing and new data.
  • To validate previous findings with improved relatedness estimates.
  • To assess evidence for and against alternative explanations for the evolutionary stability of food sharing.

Main Methods:

  • Review of published and unpublished data on vampire bat food sharing.
  • Analysis of factors predicting food sharing behavior.
  • Validation of previous results using precise genetic relatedness estimates.

Main Results:

  • Correlational evidence suggests both direct and indirect fitness benefits influence food sharing.
  • Existing data supports the role of relatedness in food sharing patterns.
  • Alternative explanations for food sharing stability are examined.

Conclusions:

  • Unequivocally demonstrating reciprocity in vampire bats necessitates further research.
  • Future studies should focus on whether bats adjust their behavior in response to non-reciprocation.
  • Understanding the nuances of vampire bat cooperation is crucial for evolutionary biology.