Re: Logic of kin selection
From: Malcolm (malcolm_at_55bank.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: 01/31/05
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Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:17:17 -0500 (EST)
"Perplexed in Peoria" <jimmenegay@sbcglobal.net> wrote
>
> Does "role assignment" have to be independent of genetics?
>
> Do roles have to be observable? That is, if we are trying to
> estimate b and c from field data using some kind of partial
> regression, does the role assignment have to be one of the
> independent variables that we "control for"?
>
Yes. The animal that controls the resource takes the decision whether to
share it. It doesn't check the genetic makeup of the recipient directly, or
it would be a "green beard effect" gene, but it knows the degree of
relatedness.
The roles are assigned by the environment. We can imagine that the animals
hunt, and some catch rabbits (big prey) whilst others catch mice (small
prey). An animal with a mouse has too few calories to do all it wants,
whilst an animal with a rabbit is laying down luxury fat reserves. So will
an animal with a rabbit give some of the meat to an animal with a mouse?
Once we say that allele A affects not only disposition to share, but also
hunting ability, then we've left Hamilton's model. You could say that, in
fact, animals that are gentically similar will also be similar in their
disposition to catch either mice or rabbits. You might even manage to
formulate this in such as way as to extend Hamilton's theory usefully. But
that's for later.
If you wanted to devise an experiment to test Hamilton's model, you would
need to observe which animals were giving and which were receiving
resources. The obvious step would then be to manipulate resource levels eg
by stealing an amount of food equal to that given from an amimals subsequent
catches, to see if you could measure the effect of the donation on
reproductive success.
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