Male alliance behaviour and mating access varies with habitat in a dolphin social network.
Male alliance behaviour and mating access varies with habitat in a dolphin social network.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/srep46354
复制
发表时间：
2017-04-13
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Krützen M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Connor RC;Cioffi WR;Randić S;Allen SJ;Watson-Capps J;Krützen M
社会结构的物种内变异最近引起了人们的兴趣，因为它有可能探索表型可塑性，特别是人口和生态变异如何影响社会结构。宽吻海豚（Tursiops spp.）的种群在雄性联盟的形成上各不相同，从没有联盟到简单的成对，在西澳大利亚的鲨鱼湾，这是人类之外已知的最复杂的筑巢联盟。由于种群之间在其他潜在的解释性特征（如系统发育距离、雌性生殖时间表、两性大小二态性和体型）上的差异，对这种变异的生态贡献的检验变得复杂。在这里，我们报告了我们在鲨鱼湾种群中发现的联盟结构、季节性运动和在一个连续的社会网络中获得配偶的系统空间变化。雄性三重奏（相对于成对）的参与，季节范围变化的大小和团契率都沿着50公里长的研究区域从北向南下降。南部的栖息地以浅滩和河道为特征，相对于开阔的北部栖息地来说，可能是边缘的。在单个种群中，联盟行为沿空间轴变化的发现是前所未有的，并表明联盟复杂性具有生态成分。
Within-species variation in social structure has attracted interest recently because of the potential to explore phenotypic plasticity and, specifically, how demographic and ecological variation influence social structure. Populations of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) vary in male alliance formation, from no alliances to simple pairs to, in Shark Bay, Western Australia, the most complex nested alliances known outside of humans. Examination of ecological contributions to this variation is complicated by differences among populations in other potentially explanatory traits, such as phylogenetic distance, as well as female reproductive schedules, sexual size dimorphism, and body size. Here, we report our discovery of systematic spatial variation in alliance structure, seasonal movements and access to mates within a single continuous social network in the Shark Bay population. Participation in male trios (versus pairs), the sizes of seasonal range shifts and consortship rates all decrease from north to south along the 50 km length of the study area. The southern habitat, characterised by shallow banks and channels, may be marginal relative to the open northern habitat. The discovery of variation in alliance behaviour along a spatial axis within a single population is unprecedented and demonstrates that alliance complexity has an ecological component.