Benefits of group living and helping behaviour in the cooperatively breeding purple-crowned fairy-wren, Malurus coronatus

Cooperative breeding is an evolutionary puzzle as individuals forego independent reproduction and instead assist others. I investigate how and why helpers contribute to multiple cooperative tasks in the purple-crowned fairy-wren, Malurus coronatus. I show that social group composition, in particular the presence of relatives and potential mates, affects benefits of group living, and consequently, helping behaviour. Moreover, cooperation in offspring provisioning and predator defence is driven by benefits of group living and of helping raise offspring. Thus, it is important to take group composition and multiple forms of helping into account, to gain a comprehensive understanding of complex social systems.