Male greater sac-winged bats gain direct fitness benefits when roosting in multimale colonies

Martina Nagy, Mirjam Knörnschild, Christian C. Voigt and Frieder Mayer

Behavioral Ecology, 2012, vol. 23, issue 3, 597-606

Abstract: Social groups that are characterized by the presence of male kin are rare in mammals. Theory predicts that males reproducing in such groups need to overcome the costs of local mate competition, which are supposedly severe in polygynous or promiscuous mating systems. Here, we studied in a polygynous mammal with male philopatry whether male group size renders direct fitness benefits for males that could outweigh the costs of competing with related males for access to territories and mates. We used long-term behavioral observations and genetic data of the greater sac-winged bat to investigate the factors affecting lifetime breeding success (LBS) of harem males living in colonies that contain varying numbers of male residents. We show that tenure of harem males increased with the number of male coresidents and that harem male tenure explained a large proportion of variation in their LBS. Thus, our results provide evidence that males gain direct fitness benefits from a social organization in colonies that include additional harem territories and nonharem males. Immigration of males into colonies was significantly lower when nonharem males (young males that are often related to harem males) were permanently present in colonies, suggesting that larger male groups may be better able to maintain a patriline in a colony and thus also ensure future indirect fitness benefits.

Date: 2012
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