Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Biol Lett. 2017 Apr;13(4). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0961.
In group-living mammals, the eviction of subordinate females from breeding groups by dominants may serve to reduce feeding competition or to reduce breeding competition. Here, we combined both correlational and experimental approaches to investigate whether increases in food intake by dominant females reduces their tendency to evict subordinate females in wild meerkats (). We used 20 years of long-term data to examine the association between foraging success and eviction rate, and provisioned dominant females during the second half of their pregnancy, when they most commonly evict subordinates. We show that rather than reducing the tendency for dominants to evict subordinates, foraging success of dominant females is positively associated with the probability that pregnant dominant females will evict subordinate females and that experimental feeding increased their rates of eviction. Our results suggest that it is unlikely that the eviction of subordinate females serves to reduce feeding competition and that its principal function may be to reduce reproductive competition. The increase in eviction rates following experimental feeding also suggests that rather than feeding competition, energetic constraints may normally constrain eviction rates.
在群体生活的哺乳动物中，优势个体将次级雌性逐出繁殖群体可能有助于减少觅食竞争或繁殖竞争。在这里，我们结合了相关和实验方法来研究主导雌性的食物摄入量增加是否会降低它们驱逐次级雌性的倾向。我们使用了 20 年的长期数据来检查觅食成功与驱逐率之间的关联，并在主导雌性妊娠后期为它们提供食物，因为在这个时期，它们最常驱逐下属。我们表明，主导雌性的觅食成功与其驱逐下属的可能性呈正相关，而不是减少主导者驱逐下属的倾向，并且实验喂养增加了它们的驱逐率。我们的结果表明，驱逐次级雌性不太可能是为了减少觅食竞争，其主要功能可能是减少繁殖竞争。实验喂养后驱逐率的增加也表明，不是觅食竞争，而是能量限制通常会限制驱逐率。
