Yitzchak Ben-Mocha

Large-scale comparative analyses are powerful tools to investigate the causes and consequences of cooperative breeding. However, recent studies demonstrate that datasets that are frequently used in these analyses include considerable methodological biases (e.g. inconsistent definitions, human errors). To advance comparative research on cooperative breeding, we are working to establish the Global Cooperative Breeding Database (GCoo-BreeD): a growing database covering key biological parameters of cooperative breeding in birds and mammals, including humans (e.g. the prevalence of breeding units with potential alloparents). GCoo-BreeD has a unique structure as it is (i) a sample-based database (i.e. multiple samples per species linked to an exact sampling location and period), (ii) every data entry is peer-reviewed and (iii) it is an updatable resource. These principles enable investigating intra- and inter-species variation, data accuracy and data expansion with the publication of new natural history papers. Furthermore, GCoo-BreeD will facilitate the study of cooperative breeding as a continuous trait, thereby enabling greater explanatory power than the traditional binary classification of species as cooperative versus non-cooperative breeders. GCoo-BreeD is committed to fair acknowledgement to data contributors (who are offered co-authorship) and to increasing gender and ethnic diversity in cooperative breeding research.