Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related?
Previous studies of coastal river otters ( Lontra canadensis ) in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, documented atypical social organization for mammals. Social groups were composed largely of males, but some males remained solitary year-round and most females were asocial. Because, in carnivores, g...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:beheco:15/5/705 2023-05-15T18:49:00+02:00 Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? Blundell, Gail M. Ben-David, Merav Groves, Pamela Bowyer, R. Terry Geffen, Eli 2004-09-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/5/705 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 en eng Oxford University Press http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/5/705 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 Copyright (C) 2004, International Society for Behavioral Ecology ARTICLES TEXT 2004 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 2016-11-16T17:19:23Z Previous studies of coastal river otters ( Lontra canadensis ) in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, documented atypical social organization for mammals. Social groups were composed largely of males, but some males remained solitary year-round and most females were asocial. Because, in carnivores, groups are usually composed of highly related individuals but group living also provides advantages unrelated to kinship, we concurrently evaluated the role of relatedness and ecological benefits in sociality among coastal river otters. By using DNA microsatellite analysis and radiotelemetry, we were able to reject the hypothesis that social groups of otters were kin based. In addition, we found no indication of kin avoidance, as would be expected from low dispersal and high local competition. Sociality conferred no reproductive benefits or costs to otters; number of offspring and number of relatives in the population did not differ between social and solitary animals. Solitary males were not older or larger than were social males, and there was no relation between male size and number of offspring, indicating that sexual selection did not mask a potential relation between sociality and reproductive success. Among coastal river otters in this region, sociality could be explained by the benefits obtained from cooperative foraging on high-quality schooling pelagic fishes. Such benefits did not require association with kin, resulting in no selection pressure for kin-based groups. The prediction that the degree of sociality in the population will fluctuate relative to the abundance of schooling pelagic fishes merits further investigation. Text Alaska Lontra HighWire Press (Stanford University) Behavioral Ecology 15 5 705 714 |
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ARTICLES Blundell, Gail M. Ben-David, Merav Groves, Pamela Bowyer, R. Terry Geffen, Eli Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
topic_facet |
ARTICLES |
description |
Previous studies of coastal river otters ( Lontra canadensis ) in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, documented atypical social organization for mammals. Social groups were composed largely of males, but some males remained solitary year-round and most females were asocial. Because, in carnivores, groups are usually composed of highly related individuals but group living also provides advantages unrelated to kinship, we concurrently evaluated the role of relatedness and ecological benefits in sociality among coastal river otters. By using DNA microsatellite analysis and radiotelemetry, we were able to reject the hypothesis that social groups of otters were kin based. In addition, we found no indication of kin avoidance, as would be expected from low dispersal and high local competition. Sociality conferred no reproductive benefits or costs to otters; number of offspring and number of relatives in the population did not differ between social and solitary animals. Solitary males were not older or larger than were social males, and there was no relation between male size and number of offspring, indicating that sexual selection did not mask a potential relation between sociality and reproductive success. Among coastal river otters in this region, sociality could be explained by the benefits obtained from cooperative foraging on high-quality schooling pelagic fishes. Such benefits did not require association with kin, resulting in no selection pressure for kin-based groups. The prediction that the degree of sociality in the population will fluctuate relative to the abundance of schooling pelagic fishes merits further investigation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Blundell, Gail M. Ben-David, Merav Groves, Pamela Bowyer, R. Terry Geffen, Eli |
author_facet |
Blundell, Gail M. Ben-David, Merav Groves, Pamela Bowyer, R. Terry Geffen, Eli |
author_sort |
Blundell, Gail M. |
title |
Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
title_short |
Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
title_full |
Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
title_fullStr |
Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
title_sort |
kinship and sociality in coastal river otters: are they related? |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/5/705 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 |
genre |
Alaska Lontra |
genre_facet |
Alaska Lontra |
op_relation |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/5/705 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2004, International Society for Behavioral Ecology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh110 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
705 |
op_container_end_page |
714 |
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1766242409599991808 |