Suppressing subordinate reproduction provides benefits to dominants in cooperative societies of meerkats

M. B. V. Bell (), M. A. Cant, C. Borgeaud, N. Thavarajah, J. Samson and T. H. Clutton-Brock
Additional contact information
M. B. V. Bell: Large Animal Research Group, University of Cambridge, Downing Street
M. A. Cant: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter in Cornwall
C. Borgeaud: Kalahari Meerkat Project, Kuruman River Reserve, PO. Box 64
N. Thavarajah: Kalahari Meerkat Project, Kuruman River Reserve, PO. Box 64
J. Samson: Kalahari Meerkat Project, Kuruman River Reserve, PO. Box 64
T. H. Clutton-Brock: Large Animal Research Group, University of Cambridge, Downing Street

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract In many animal societies, a small proportion of dominant females monopolize reproduction by actively suppressing subordinates. Theory assumes that this is because subordinate reproduction depresses the fitness of dominants, yet the effect of subordinate reproduction on dominant behaviour and reproductive success has never been directly assessed. Here, we describe the consequences of experimentally preventing subordinate breeding in 12 groups of wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) for three breeding attempts, using contraceptive injections. When subordinates are prevented from breeding, dominants are less aggressive towards subordinates and evict them less often, leading to a higher ratio of helpers to dependent pups, and increased provisioning of the dominant’s pups by subordinate females. When subordinate breeding is suppressed, dominants also show improved foraging efficiency, gain more weight during pregnancy and produce heavier pups, which grow faster. These results confirm the benefits of suppression to dominants, and help explain the evolution of singular breeding in vertebrate societies.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5499 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5499

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5499

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().