Premium
Group structure, kinship, inbreeding risk and habitual female dispersal in plural‐breeding mammals
Author(s) -
LUKAS D.,
CLUTTONBROCK T. H.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02385.x
Subject(s) - philopatry , biology , inbreeding , biological dispersal , inbreeding avoidance , breed , plural , demography , harem , kinship , evolutionary biology , ecology , zoology , mate choice , population , linguistics , philosophy , sociology , political science , law , mating
Abstract In most plural‐breeding mammals, female group members are matrilineal relatives but, in a small number of species, all adult females are immigrants who are seldom closely related to each other. Some explanations of contrasts in female philopatry suggest that these differences are a consequence of variation in resource distribution and feeding competition, whereas others argue that they reflect variation in the risk of close inbreeding to philopatric females. However, neither explanation has been tested against quantitative comparisons. Here, we use quantitative comparisons and phylogenetic reconstructions to show that contrasts in female philopatry in plural breeders are associated with the risk that a female’s father is reproductively active in her group when she starts to breed, supporting the suggestion that habitual female dispersal has evolved to minimize the risk of inbreeding.