BACKGROUND Behavioural syndromes, i.e. consistent individual differences in behaviours that are correlated across different functional contexts, are a challenge to evolutionary reasoning because individuals should adapt their behaviour to the requirements of each situation. Behavioural syndromes are often interpreted as a result of constraints resulting in limited plasticity and inflexible behaviour. Alternatively, they may be adaptive if correlated ecological or social challenges functionally integrate apparently independent behaviours. To test the latter hypothesis we repeatedly tested helpers in the cooperative breeder Neolamprologus pulcher for exploration and two types of helping behaviour. In case of adaptive behavioural syndromes we predicted a positive relationship between exploration and aggressive helping (territory defence) and a negative relationship between these behaviours and non-aggressive helping (territory maintenance). RESULTS As expected, helpers engaging more in territory defence were consistently more explorative and engaged less in territory maintenance, the latter only when dominant breeders were present. Contrary to our prediction, there was no negative relationship between exploration and territory maintenance. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that the three behaviours we measured are part of behavioural syndromes. These may be adaptive, in that they reflect strategic specialization of helpers into one of two different life history strategies, namely (a) to stay and help in the home territory in order to inherit the breeding position or (b) to disperse early in order to breed independently.

中文翻译：

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由于战略利基专业化而产生的适应性行为综合症。


背景技术行为综合症，即跨不同功能环境相关的一致的行为个体差异，是对进化推理的挑战，因为个体应该使他们的行为适应每种情况的要求。行为综​​合症通常被解释为限制导致可塑性有限和行为僵化的结果。或者，如果相关的生态或社会挑战在功能上整合了明显独立的行为，那么它们可能具有适应性。为了检验后一个假设，我们反复测试了合作饲养者 Neolamprologus pulcher 中的助手的探索行为和两种类型的帮助行为。在适应性行为综合症的情况下，我们预测探索和攻击性帮助（领地防御）之间存在正相关关系，而这些行为和非攻击性帮助（领地维护）之间存在负相关关系。结果正如预期的那样，更多地参与领地防御的帮手始终更具探索性，而更少地参与领地维护，后者只有在优势繁殖者存在时才进行。与我们的预测相反，勘探和领土维护之间不存在负相关关系。结论 我们的结果表明我们测量的三种行为是行为综合症的一部分。这些可能是适应性的，因为它们反映了帮助者的战略专业化进入两种不同的生活史策略之一，即（a）留在家乡并提供帮助以继承繁殖地位或（b）尽早分散以便能够独立繁殖。