Odour-based kin discrimination in the cooperatively breeding meerkat
Odour-based kin discrimination in the cooperatively breeding meerkat
复制标题
合作饲养猫鼬中基于气味的亲属歧视
作者：
S. Leclaire;J. F. Nielsen;Nathan K. Thavarajah;M. Manser;T. Clutton‐Brock
亲属识别是动物的一种有用的能力，有助于亲属之间的合作，避免过度的亲属竞争或近亲繁殖。在猫鼬中，不熟悉的亲属之间的相遇相对频繁，通过表型匹配进行亲属识别有望避免与近亲近亲近亲交配。在这里，我们调查女性猫鼬是否能够区分不熟悉的亲属不熟悉的非亲属的气味。占主导地位的女性与肛门腺分泌物从不熟悉的个人，在他们的相关性不同。我们的研究结果表明，女性花了更多的时间调查气味的相关比无关的陌生人，这表明女性可能使用表型匹配机制（或识别等位基因），以区分气味的亲属从他们的非亲属。我们的研究提供了一个关键的起点，进一步调查使用亲属识别近亲繁殖避免广泛研究的猫鼬。
Kin recognition is a useful ability for animals, facilitating cooperation among relatives and avoidance of excessive kin competition or inbreeding. In meerkats, Suricata suricatta, encounters between unfamiliar kin are relatively frequent, and kin recognition by phenotype matching is expected to avoid inbreeding with close relatives. Here, we investigate whether female meerkats are able to discriminate the scent of unfamiliar kin from unfamiliar non-kin. Dominant females were presented with anal gland secretion from unfamiliar individuals that varied in their relatedness. Our result indicates that females spent more time investigating the scent of related than unrelated unfamiliar individuals, suggesting that females may use a phenotype matching mechanism (or recognition alleles) to discriminate the odour of their kin from the odour of their non-kin. Our study provides a key starting point for further investigations into the use of kin recognition for inbreeding avoidance in the widely studied meerkat.