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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
The number of subordinates moderates intrasexual competition among males in cooperatively breeding meerkats
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume 275, No. 1631, Year 2008
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Description
For dominant individuals in cooperatively breeding species, the presence of subordinates is associated with both benefits (i.e. increased reproductive output and other group-living benefits) and costs (i.e. intrasexual competition on reproduction). The biological market theory predicts that dominant individuals are tolerant to same-sex group members when there are only a few subordinates, so as to maximize their own reproductive success. We investigated factors affecting aggression by dominant males and submission by subordinate males for a cooperatively breeding mammal, meerkats, Suricata suricatta. In this species, reproductive conflict occurs between the dominant male and the non-offspring males. As predicted, the number of subordinates in a group was positively associated with the aggression frequency by the dominant male and with the submission frequency by the subordinate males. Relative to the aggression frequency against male offspring, the frequency of aggression against non-offspring males was comparable in small groups, but was higher in large groups. These results indicate that reproductive conflict is present between the dominant male and the non-offspring males but is moderated in groups with small numbers of subordinates. This study provides an empirical data agreeing with the biological market theory in the context of intrasexual competition in cooperatively breeding species. © 2007 The Royal Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Kutsukake, Kentaro
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Japan, Tokyo
The University of Tokyo
Japan, Wako
Riken Center for Brain Science
Clutton-Brock, Tim H.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Statistics
Citations: 47
Authors: 2
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1098/rspb.2007.1311
ISSN:
09628452
Research Areas
Sexual And Reproductive Health
Participants Gender
Male