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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Odour-based kin discrimination in the cooperatively breeding meerkat
Biology Letters, Volume 9, No. 1, Article 20121054, Year 2013
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Description
Kin recognition is a useful ability for animals, facilitating cooperation among relatives and avoidance of excessive kin competition or inbreeding. In meerkats, Suricata suricatta, encounters between unfamiliar kin are relatively frequent, and kin recognition by phenotype matching is expected to avoid inbreeding with close relatives. Here, we investigate whether female meerkats are able to discriminate the scent of unfamiliar kin from unfamiliar non-kin. Dominant females were presented with anal gland secretion from unfamiliar individuals that varied in their relatedness. Our result indicates that females spent more time investigating the scent of related than unrelated unfamiliar individuals, suggesting that females may use a phenotype matching mechanism (or recognition alleles) to discriminate the odour of their kin from the odour of their non-kin. Our study provides a key starting point for further investigations into the use of kin recognition for inbreeding avoidance in the widely studied meerkat. © 2012 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Leclaire, Sarah
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
South Africa, Kuruman
Kalahari Meerkat Project
Nielsen, Johanna Fønss
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh
United Kingdom, London
Zoological Society of London Institute of Zoology
Thavarajah, Nathan K.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
South Africa, Kuruman
Kalahari Meerkat Project
Manser, Marta Bertha
South Africa, Kuruman
Kalahari Meerkat Project
Switzerland, Zurich
Universität Zürich
Clutton-Brock, Tim H.
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
South Africa, Kuruman
Kalahari Meerkat Project
Statistics
Citations: 58
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1098/rsbl.2012.1054
ISSN:
17449561
e-ISSN:
1744957X
Study Design
Case-Control Study
Participants Gender
Female