Faye J. Thompson
Reproductive competition triggers mass eviction in cooperative banded mongooses
Thompson, Faye J.; Marshall, Harry H.; Sanderson, Jennifer L.; Vitikainen, Emma I. K.; Nichols, Hazel J.; Gilchrist, Jason S.; Young, Andrew J.; Hodge, Sarah J.; Cant, Michael A.
Authors
Harry H. Marshall
Jennifer L. Sanderson
Emma I. K. Vitikainen
Hazel J. Nichols
Dr Jason Gilchrist j.gilchrist@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
Andrew J. Young
Sarah J. Hodge
Michael A. Cant
Abstract
In many vertebrate societies, forced eviction of group members is an important determinant of population structure, but little is known about what triggers eviction. Three main explanations are: (i) the reproductive competition hypothesis, (ii) the coercion of cooperation hypothesis, and (iii) the adaptive forced dispersal hypothesis. The last hypothesis proposes that dominant individuals use eviction as an adaptive strategy to propagate copies of their alleles through a highly structured population. We tested these hypotheses as explanations for eviction in cooperatively breeding banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), using a 16-year dataset on life history, behaviour and relatedness. In this species, groups of females, or mixed-sex groups, are periodically evicted en masse. Our evidence suggests that reproductive competition is the main ultimate trigger for eviction for both sexes. We find little evidence that mass eviction is used to coerce helping, or as a mechanism to force dispersal of relatives into the population. Eviction of females changes the landscape of reproductive competition for remaining males, which may explain why males are evicted alongside females. Our results show that the consequences of resolving within-group conflict resonate through groups and populations to affect population structure, with important implications for social evolution.
Citation
Thompson, F. J., Marshall, H. H., Sanderson, J. L., Vitikainen, E. I. K., Nichols, H. J., Gilchrist, J. S., Young, A. J., Hodge, S. J., & Cant, M. A. (2016). Reproductive competition triggers mass eviction in cooperative banded mongooses. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1826), 20152607. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2607
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Feb 8, 2016 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 2, 2016 |
Publication Date | Mar 16, 2016 |
Deposit Date | Jun 7, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 22, 2019 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0962-8452 |
Electronic ISSN | 1471-2954 |
Publisher | Royal Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 283 |
Issue | 1826 |
Pages | 20152607 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2607 |
Keywords | Coercion; conflict; cooperation; eviction; forced dispersal; reproductive competition |
Public URL | http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/10345 |
Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2607 |
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Copyright Statement
Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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