Odour-based kin discrimination in the cooperatively breeding meerkat.

Routes to indirect fitness in cooperatively breeding vertebrates: kin discrimination and limited dispersal.

Hamilton demonstrated that the evolution of cooperative behaviour is favoured by high relatedness, which can arise through kin discrimination or limited dispersal (population viscosity). These two processes are likely to operate with limited overlap: kin discrimination is beneficial when variation in relatedness is higher, whereas limited dispersal results in less variable and higher average re...

Kin discrimination and the benefit of helping in cooperatively breeding vertebrates.

In many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, a dominant breeding pair is assisted in offspring care by nonbreeding helpers. A leading explanation for this altruistic behavior is Hamilton's idea that helpers gain indirect fitness benefits by rearing relatives (kin selection). Many studies have shown that helpers typically provide care for relatives, but relatively few have shown that helpers prov...

No evidence for adaptive sex ratio variation in the cooperatively breeding meerkat, Suricata suricatta

Reproductive success is predicted by social dynamics and kinship in managed animal populations

Kin and group interactions are important determinants of reproductive success in many species. Their optimization could, therefore, potentially improve the productivity and breeding success of managed populations used for agricultural and conservation purposes. Here we demonstrate this potential using a novel approach to measure and predict the effect of kin and group dynamics on reproductive o...

Infanticide by subordinates influences reproductive sharing in cooperatively breeding meerkats.

In cooperative animal societies, dominant females typically show higher breeding success than subordinates, and are commonly believed to control the extent of reproductive sharing. However, studies of social insect societies reveal that subordinates too can interfere with the breeding attempts of others, with important implications for the distribution of fitness within colonies. Here, we show ...