Co-BreeD: A milestone resource for studies on cooperative breeding

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Cooperative breeding, a system where individuals other than the parents assist in raising young, is crucial for understanding sociality and cooperation.
• Existing data on cooperative breeding is often fragmented, hindering comprehensive analysis of its ecological and evolutionary drivers.
• A centralized, accessible database is needed to facilitate large-scale research on this complex social behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD), an open-source, peer-reviewed resource for data on cooperative breeding.
• To enable the study of cooperative breeding as a continuous trait at fine spatial and temporal scales.
• To facilitate the exploration of the ecological and evolutionary factors influencing cooperative breeding.

Main Methods:

• The Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) integrates data from diverse sources, covering nearly 40,000 breeding events across 316 species.
• Data is peer-reviewed to ensure quality and accessibility for researchers.
• The database is designed to accommodate detailed, continuous data on cooperative breeding behaviors.

Main Results:

• Co-BreeD provides a comprehensive dataset for studying sociality and cooperation across avian and mammalian taxa, including humans.
• The database's novel approach allows cooperative breeding to be analyzed as a continuous trait, offering deeper insights than binary classifications.
• Preliminary analyses suggest that alloparental care, a key component of cooperative breeding, may be more prevalent than previously recognized.

Conclusions:

• Co-BreeD is a valuable, growing resource for ecological and evolutionary research on cooperation.
• The database supports collaborative, reproducible, and robust scientific inquiry by providing high-quality, accessible data.
• This initiative highlights the increasing importance of curated data resources in advancing our understanding of complex biological systems.