DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Relationship between Maternal Social Status, Offspring Health, and Female Dispersal Success in Wild Meerkats

许多动物在成年后离开出生地，以避免与亲戚竞争或交配。然而，在一个新的地区旅行和定居可能是危险的，因为动物会暴露在新的疾病、捕食者和不友好的邻居面前。这个项目是为了确定帮助这些动物一路走来的品质，并测试那些能够更好地抵御疾病和应对压力的动物是否更成功。研究小组将使用复杂的GPS技术来监测喀拉哈里沙漠中年轻雌性猫鼬从一个社会群体转移到另一个社会群体时的健康和生存状况。该项目还将通过大众媒体和“喀拉哈里之友”网站培训本科生，并让小学生参与研究。除了提高我们对动物分散的认识外，这项研究的结果还将为我们在碎片化和不断变化的栖息地中管理动物的方式提供信息。在之前对狐獴群体的研究中，pi发现，处于支配地位的雌性狐獴在激素“雄性化”的情况下，在所有群体成员中具有最弱的构成免疫反应，这表明雌性狐獴暴露在雄性激素下是有代价的。此外，由于雄激素浓度随雌性社会地位的不同而变化，研究人员发现了证据，表明不同的产前雄激素暴露对接受雄激素受体阻滞剂的优势对照（DC）、从属对照（SC）和优势处理（DT）幼崽的健康有组织影响。在这里，pi将跟踪DC、SC和DT水坝的后代在下一个生活史阶段的“扩散”，以研究母亲社会地位/产前T对后代扩散的跨代影响。通过将行为、激素和免疫分析与新型全球定位系统（GPS）遥测数据相结合的综合方法，pi将绘制出女儿在分散的连续阶段（从出生群体迁移、短暂期和在新领土定居）的健康和社会轨迹。具体来说，pi将(1)通过定期的行为观察确定优势关系并识别可能的分散者；(2)将GPS无线电项圈安装在25只预分散的雌性上，并每小时记录它们的运动轨迹；(3)测量(a)粪便样本（在传播之前、传播过程中和传播之后收集）和(b)血清样本（在传播前和定居后收集）中的免疫能力（寄生虫负担和免疫反应）和激素浓度（雄激素和糖皮质激素）；(4)评估这些雌性在新组建的群体中的健康状况和存活率。

Many animals leave their birth places as they become adults to avoid competing or mating with relatives. However, traveling to and settling in a new area can be dangerous as animals are exposed to new diseases, predators, and unfriendly neighbors. This project is to identify the qualities that help these animals along the way, and to test whether those that are better able to withstand disease and to cope with stress are more successful. The research team will use sophisticated GPS technology to monitor the health and survival of young female Meerkats in the Kalahari Desert as they move from one social group to another. The project will also train undergraduate students and engage schoolchildren in the research through popular media and the Friends of Kalahari website. In addition to advancing our knowledge of dispersal, the results of this study will inform the ways in which we manage animals in fragmented and changing habitats. In previous work on meerkat societies, the PIs found that dominant females, which are hormonally "masculinized", have the weakest constitutive immune responses of all group members, indicating a cost of androgen exposure in females. Moreover, because androgen concentrations vary with female social status, the PIs found evidence for organizational effects of differential prenatal androgen exposure on the health of juvenile offspring derived from dominant control (DC), subordinate control (SC), and dominant treated (DT) dams receiving an androgen-receptor blocker. Here, the PIs will follow the daughters of DC, SC, and DT dams over the next life-history stage "dispersal" to study the transgenerational effects of maternal social status/prenatal T on offspring dispersal. Using an integrated approach that combines behavioral, hormonal, and immunological analyses with novel global positioning system (GPS) telemetry data, the PIs will chart the health and social trajectories of daughters over successive stages of dispersal (during emigration from the natal group, a transience period, and settlement in a new territory). Specifically, the PIs will (1) determine dominance relationships and identify likely dispersers via regular behavioral observation; (2) fit GPS radio collars to 25 pre-dispersal females and chart their movements on an hourly basis; (3) measure immunocompetence (parasite burden and immune response) and hormone concentrations (androgens and glucocorticoids) in (a) fecal samples (collected prior to, over the course of, and following dispersal) and (b) serum samples (collected pre-dispersal and post-settlement); and (4) evaluate the health and survival of these females in their newly formed groups.