Cooperative breeding in marmots
Abstract
Whenever individuals live in stable social groups and not all individuals breed, group members may breed cooperatively. While well-documented in a variety of birds and mammals, there is some controversy over whether, and to what degree, sciurid rodents breed cooperatively. We identify cooperative breeding when: individuals delay dispersal beyond reproductive maturity, reproduction in mature individuals is suppressed, and when non-breeders provide alloparental care. In this paper we note that the 14 species of marmots (Marmota spp.), large ground-dwelling sciurid rodents found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, provide an excellent taxon in which to study the evolution of cooperative breeding. Marmot species fit none, some, or all of the attributes of cooperative breeding. Most interestingly, delayed dispersal and alloparental care may be de-coupled interspecifically, and possibly intraspecifically, making marmots an excellent taxon for additional study. Environmental harshness increases maturation time and is associated with dispersal delayed beyond reproductive maturity. The opportunity to gain direct fitness may be associated with gaining indirect fitness by alloparental behavior. In addition to its theoretical attraction, cooperative breeding has profound implications for conservation and management of species that breed cooperatively. To maximize marmot production, managers and breeders need to pay particular attention to social group structure to prevent the expression of reproductive suppression. If cooperative breeding results from an environmental constraint, habitat modifications may increase the percent of females that breed.
Local Knowledge Graph (12 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.
Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity
Life history consequences of social complexity: a comparative study of ground-dwelling sciurids
Behavioral ecology of alpine yellow-bellied marmots
Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal: Data and analysis
Data from: Cumulative reproductive costs on current reproduction in a wild polytocous mammal
Marmot mass gain rates relate to their group’s social structure
An Ecological Basis for Beaver Management in the Rocky Mountain Region
Management of Livestock Herbivory in Relationship to Sage-grouse Habitats and Populations
Beaver Management in Grazed Riparian Ecosystems
Cited By (133 times, 19 in Knowledge Hub)
Social control is associated with increased reproductive skew in a wild mammal
How social behaviour and life-history traits change with age and in the year prior to death in female yellow-bellied marmots
Correlates of maternal glucocorticoid levels in a socially flexible rodent
Can yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventer</i>) learn foraging innovations?
Fitness and hormonal correlates of social and ecological stressors of female yellow-bellied marmots.
Early play may predict later dominance relationships in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
Do marmots display a dear enemy phenomenon in response to anal gland secretions?
Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond
Functional relationships between early play behavior and adult dominance roles in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
Ontogenetic and sex differences influence alarm call responses in mammals: A meta-analysis
Applying the coalitionary-traits metric: sociality without cooperation in male yellow-bellied marmots
Influence of local demography on asymptotic and transient dynamics of a yellow-bellied marmot metapopulation
Indirect fitness benefits do not compensate for the loss of direct fitness in yellow-bellied marmots
Effects of patch quality and network structure on patch occupancy dynamics of a yellow-bellied marmot metapopulation
Metapopulation dynamics of yellow-bellied marmots
Yellow-bellied marmots discriminate between the alarm calls of individuals and are more responsive to calls from juveniles
Yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>) hibernate socially
Dynamics of immigration into yellow-bellied marmot colonies
Social enhancement of fitness in yellow-bellied marmots
References (106)
7 in Knowledge Hub, 99 external