Suppressing subordinate reproduction provides benefits to dominants in cooperative societies of meerkats.
Suppressing subordinate reproduction provides benefits to dominants in cooperative societies of meerkats.
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抑制从属繁殖为狐獴合作社会中的统治者带来了好处。
DOI:
10.1038/ncomms5499
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发表时间:
2014-07-22
影响因子:
16.6
通讯作者:
Clutton-Brock TH
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Bell MB;Cant MA;Borgeaud C;Thavarajah N;Samson J;Clutton-Brock TH
In many animal societies, a small proportion of dominant females monopolize reproduction by actively suppressing subordinates. Theory assumes that this is because subordinate reproduction depresses the fitness of dominants, yet the effect of subordinate reproduction on dominant behaviour and reproductive success has never been directly assessed. Here, we describe the consequences of experimentally preventing subordinate breeding in 12 groups of wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) for three breeding attempts, using contraceptive injections. When subordinates are prevented from breeding, dominants are less aggressive towards subordinates and evict them less often, leading to a higher ratio of helpers to dependent pups, and increased provisioning of the dominant’s pups by subordinate females. When subordinate breeding is suppressed, dominants also show improved foraging efficiency, gain more weight during pregnancy and produce heavier pups, which grow faster. These results confirm the benefits of suppression to dominants, and help explain the evolution of singular breeding in vertebrate societies. In hierarchical animal societies, dominant females suppress breeding by subordinate females. Here, the authors experimentally suppress breeding by subordinate female meerkats and observe that dominants give birth to heavier pups which grow faster, suggesting this behaviour improves fitness of dominants.
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影响因子:
56.9
作者:
Clutton-Brock, TH;Russell, AF;Cameron, EZ
通讯作者:
Cameron, EZ
影响因子:
8.8
作者:
Lahdenpera, Mirkka;Gillespie, Duncan O. S.;Russell, Andrew F.
通讯作者:
Russell, Andrew F.
影响因子:
56.9
作者:
Packer, C;Pusey, AE;Eberly, LE
通讯作者:
Eberly, LE
影响因子:
64.8
作者:
FRANK, SA
通讯作者:
FRANK, SA
影响因子:
2.9
作者:
Cant, Michael A.
通讯作者:
Cant, Michael A.