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，旅行到一个新的地区并在那里定居可能是危险的，因为动物会接触到新的疾病、捕食者和不友好的邻居。这个项目是为了确定帮助这些动物成长的品质，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技术来监测卡拉哈里沙漠中年轻雌性猫鼬的健康和生存情况，因为它们从一个社会群体转移到另一个社会群体。该项目还将培训本科生，并通过大众媒体和卡拉哈里之友网站吸引学童参与研究。除了提高我们对扩散的认识，这项研究的结果还将为我们在零散和变化的栖息地管理动物的方式提供信息。在之前关于猫鼬社会的研究中，PI发现荷尔蒙“男性化”的优势雌性在所有群体成员中具有最弱的结构性免疫反应，这表明雌性接触雄激素是有代价的。此外，由于雄激素浓度随着女性社会地位的不同而不同，PIS发现了不同的产前雄激素暴露对接受雄激素受体阻滞剂的显性对照(DC)、从属对照(SC)和显性处理(DT)母鼠的幼年后代健康产生的组织效应的证据。在这里，PI将跟踪DC，SC和DT的女儿在下一个生活史阶段“分散”，以研究母亲的社会地位/产前T对后代分散的跨代影响。使用一种将行为、激素和免疫学分析与新的全球定位系统(GPS)遥测数据相结合的综合方法，PI将绘制女儿在连续分散阶段(从出生群体迁出、过渡时期和在新领土定居期间)的健康和社会轨迹。具体地说，PI将(1)确定优势关系并通过定期行为观察确定可能的分散者；(2)为25只散布前的雌性安装GPS无线电项圈，并每小时绘制它们的行动图；(3)测量(A)粪便样本(在散布前、过程中和之后收集)和(B)血清样本(散布前和定居后收集)中的免疫活性(寄生虫负担和免疫反应)和激素浓度(雄激素和糖皮质激素)；以及(4)评估这些雌性在其新组建的小组中的健康和生存。

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.