Does nepotism make populations more or less vulnerable to environmental change?

社会地位的文化传承是一个有趣的现象，个体在社会等级中的地位是由亲戚的社会支持而不是个人素质驱动的。这种裙带关系的行为在灵长类动物（包括狐猴、长尾猴和人类）以及斑点鬣狗中都可以观察到。裙带关系在社会地位上的出现造成了严格的等级制度，社会利益严重偏向于特定的个人亚群体，导致社会成员之间的严重不平等。这一点在斑鬣狗的大的生殖偏差和人类社会中观察到的教育程度和收入的差异中表现得很明显。虽然动物社会中裙带关系的发生已经有了很好的记录，但裙带关系的动物社会如何受到环境变化的影响仍然不清楚。裙带关系社会的强大社会等级制度是否受到人口变化的影响？裙带关系的出现是否会使一个群体更容易或更容易受到环境变化的影响？裙带关系是否会增加或减少遗传多样性并影响自然选择的潜力？在许多裙带关系社会中发生的大规模生殖偏差可能会限制遗传多样性，从而降低应对环境变化的能力。另一种情况是，裙带关系社会可能会在环境变化中持续存在，因为高级个体可以免受恶劣条件的影响。这些问题是很重要的理解，因为环境条件会随着气候变化和野生动物管理实践而变化。在这个36个月的项目中，我们建议研究环境变化对斑点鬣狗的裙带关系社会的影响。这个物种已经成为研究的焦点超过50年，有详细的知识，配偶选择，觅食和传播行为。斑点鬣狗也是一个重要的研究物种，因为它在非洲大草原栖息地发挥着关键作用，作为草食动物疾病的媒介，并作为其他大型食肉动物的竞争对手。该项目将以位于柏林的莱布尼茨动物园和野生动物研究所为基础，该研究所是斑点鬣狗研究的领导者，并将利用已发表的研究成果，数十年的观测和遗传数据集以及在坦桑尼亚恩戈罗恩戈罗火山口收集的新环境数据来建立鬣狗社会的计算机模拟模型。使用建模方法，我们将能够进行计算机实验模拟，以测试罕见环境条件的影响（例如食物短缺、疾病爆发），并对持续的环境变化的影响作出预测（例如气候变化，野生动物管理）。该项目将使人们更好地了解环境变化对非洲大草原这一重要物种的影响，并将产生这些预测可以在其他裙带关系社会中得到检验，比如在社会性灵长类动物中看到的预测。

Cultural inheritance of social status is an intriguing phenomenon where an individual’s position in the social hierarchy is driven by social support from relatives rather than individual quality. This nepotistic behaviour is observed in primates, including lemurs, cercopithecines, and humans, and in the spotted hyena. The occurrence of nepotism in social position creates strict hierarchies where societal benefits are strongly skewed to a particular sub-group of individuals, leading to large inequalities between members of the society. This is apparent in the large reproductive skew of the spotted hyena and disparities in educational attainment and income observed in human society.Although the occurrence of nepotism in animal societies has been well documented, it is still unclear how nepotistic animal societies are affected by environmental change. Is the strong social hierarchy of a nepotistic society affected by demographic change? Does the occurrence of nepotism make a population more or less vulnerable to environmental change? Does nepotism increase or decrease genetic diversity and affect the potential for natural selection? The large reproductive skew that occurs in many nepotistic societies may limit genetic diversity and so reduce capacity to respond to environmental change. Alternatively, nepotistic societies may persist through environmental change because high ranking individuals are buffered from harsh conditions. These questions are important to understand because environmental conditions will vary with climate change and wildlife management practices.In this 36 month project we propose to study the effects of environmental change on the nepotistic society of the spotted hyena. This species has been the focus of research for more than 50 years, with detailed knowledge on mate choice, foraging, and dispersal behaviour. The spotted hyena is also an important study species as it plays a key role in the African savannah habitat as a mediator of herbivore disease and as a competitor with other large carnivores. The project will be based at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, a leader in spotted hyena research, and will use a combination of published research, a multi-decadal observational and genetic dataset, and novel environmental data collected in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania to build a computer simulation model of hyena society. Using a modelling approach we will be able to conduct in-silico experimental simulations to test the effect of rare environmental conditions (e.g. food shortage, disease outbreak) and make predictions about the effects of ongoing environmental change (e.g. climate change, wildlife management).This project will provide a better understanding of the effects of environmental change on this important species of the African savannah and will generate predictions that can be tested in other nepotistic societies, such as those seen in social primates.