Publication Date:
2001-02-13
Description:
"Limited control" models of reproductive skew in cooperative societies suggest that the frequency of breeding by subordinates is determined by the outcome of power struggles with dominants. In contrast, "optimal skew" models suggest that dominants have full control of subordinate reproduction and allow subordinates to breed only when this serves to retain subordinates' assistance with rearing dominants' own litters. The results of our 7-year field study of cooperative meerkats, Suricata suricatta, support the predictions of limited control models and provide no indication that dominant females grant reproductive concessions to subordinates to retain their assistance with future breeding attempts.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Clutton-Brock, T H -- Brotherton, P N -- Russell, A F -- O'Riain, M J -- Gaynor, D -- Kansky, R -- Griffin, A -- Manser, M -- Sharpe, L -- McIlrath, G M -- Small, T -- Moss, A -- Monfort, S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Jan 19;291(5503):478-81.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. thcb@hermes.cam.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11161200" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Africa, Southern
;
Aging
;
Animals
;
Behavior, Animal
;
Body Weight
;
Carnivora/*physiology
;
*Cooperative Behavior
;
*Dominance-Subordination
;
Female
;
Male
;
Models, Biological
;
Rain
;
*Reproduction
;
Seasons
;
*Sexual Behavior, Animal
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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