Abstract
In many animal societies, a small proportion of dominant females monopolize reproduction by actively suppressing subordinates. Theory assumes that this is because subordinate reproduction depresses the fitness of dominants, yet the effect of subordinate reproduction on dominant behaviour and reproductive success has never been directly assessed. Here, we describe the consequences of experimentally preventing subordinate breeding in 12 groups of wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) for three breeding attempts, using contraceptive injections. When subordinates are prevented from breeding, dominants are less aggressive towards subordinates and evict them less often, leading to a higher ratio of helpers to dependent pups, and increased provisioning of the dominant’s pups by subordinate females. When subordinate breeding is suppressed, dominants also show improved foraging efficiency, gain more weight during pregnancy and produce heavier pups, which grow faster. These results confirm the benefits of suppression to dominants, and help explain the evolution of singular breeding in vertebrate societies.
Highlights
In many animal societies, a small proportion of dominant females monopolize reproduction by actively suppressing subordinates
Evidence for negative effects of subordinate reproduction on dominants is limited to observations that subordinate breeding is sometimes associated with reductions in aspects of dominant female reproductive success, including care received by offspring[18], offspring weight at independence[15] and offspring survival[13,16,19]
Meerkats are cooperative mongooses, living in groups of 3–50, where reproduction is monopolized by a dominant pair[15] and all subordinates contribute to offspring care by babysitting and provisioning pups
Summary
A small proportion of dominant females monopolize reproduction by actively suppressing subordinates. We experimentally tested the assumptions of reproductive skew theory using injections of the contraceptive hormone Depo-provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate, at 7.5 mg kg À 1) to prevent subordinate female reproduction in our long term study population of wild, habituated meerkats at the Kuruman River Reserve, South Africa (26°58’S, 21°49’E).
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