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

社会地位的文化传承是一个耐人寻味的现象，在这种现象中，个人在社会等级中的地位是由亲属的社会支持而不是个人素质驱动的。这种裙带关系行为在灵长类动物中可以观察到，包括狐猴、尾猴和人类，也可以在斑点鬣狗身上观察到。裙带关系在社会地位上的出现造成了严格的等级制度，其中社会利益强烈地偏向于特定的个人亚群，导致社会成员之间的巨大不平等。这一点在人类社会中观察到的斑点鬣狗的巨大生殖扭曲和教育程度和收入差距中都很明显。尽管动物社会中裙带关系的发生已经有了很好的记录，但环境变化对裙带关系动物社会的影响仍然不清楚。裙带关系社会的强大社会等级是否会受到人口结构变化的影响？裙带关系的出现是否会让一个人更容易受到环境变化的影响？裙带关系是增加还是减少遗传多样性，并影响自然选择的潜力？在许多裙带关系社会中出现的巨大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。或者，裙带关系社会可能会在环境变化中持续下去，因为地位较高的个人可以免受恶劣条件的影响。了解这些问题很重要，因为环境条件将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裙带关系社会的影响。该物种50多年来一直是研究的重点，对配偶选择、觅食和扩散行为有详细的了解。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扮演着关键角色，是草食动物疾病的媒介，也是其他大型食肉动物的竞争对手。该项目将以柏林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先者，将结合已发表的研究、数十年的观测和遗传数据集以及在坦桑尼亚恩戈罗陨石坑收集的新颖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，我们将能够进行电子实验模拟，以测试罕见环境条件(如粮食短缺、疾病爆发)的影响，并对正在进行的环境变化的影响(如气候变化、野生动物管理)进行预测。该项目将提供对环境变化对非洲大草原这一重要物种的影响的更好理解，并将产生可在其他裙带关系社会中测试的预测，例如在社会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.