scholarly journals Clever mothers balance time and effort in parental care: a study on free-ranging dogs

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 160583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manabi Paul ◽  
Shubhra Sau ◽  
Anjan K. Nandi ◽  
Anindita Bhadra
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Levels Of Care ◽  
Future Reproduction ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Active Care

Mammalian offspring require parental care, at least in the form of nursing during their early development. While mothers need to invest considerable time and energy in ensuring the survival of their current offspring, they also need to optimize their investment in one batch of offspring in order to ensure future reproduction and hence lifetime reproductive success. Free-ranging dogs live in small social groups, mate promiscuously and lack the cooperative breeding biology of other group-living canids. They face high early-life mortality, which in turn reduces fitness benefits of the mother from a batch of pups. We carried out a field-based study on free-ranging dogs in India to understand the nature of maternal care. Our analysis reveals that mothers reduce investment in energy-intensive active care and increase passive care as the pups grow older, thereby keeping overall levels of care more or less constant over pup age. Using the patterns of mother–pup interactions, we define the different phases of maternal care behaviour.

scholarly journals Selfish mothers indeed! Resource-dependent conflict over extended parental care in free-ranging dogs

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 150580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manabi Paul ◽  
Sreejani Sen Majumder ◽  
Anjan K. Nandi ◽  
Anindita Bhadra
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Resource Quality ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Rich Food ◽  
The Social ◽  
Protein Rich ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Extended Parental Care

Parent–offspring conflict (POC) theory provides an interesting premise for understanding social dynamics in facultatively social species. In free-ranging dogs, mothers increase conflict over extended parental care with their pups beyond the weaning stage. In this study, we investigated whether resource quality affects POC in the dogs that typically live in a highly competitive environment as scavengers. We built a theoretical model to predict the alternative options available to the mother in the context of food sharing with her pups when protein-rich food (meat) is provided, as compared to carbohydrate-rich food (biscuits). We fit the mothers’ response from experimental data to the model and show that the mothers choose a selfish strategy, which can in turn ensure higher lifetime reproductive success, while depriving the current litter access to better resources. These results have interesting implications for understanding the social dynamics of the dogs, and the emergence of facultative sociality in a species that evolved from strongly social ancestors. We speculate that the tendency of increased conflict in resource-rich conditions might have driven the process of domestication in the ancestors of dogs which defected from their groups in favour of richer resources around human settlements.

Parental-care strategies among muskrats in a female-biased population

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 1503-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lui Marinelli ◽  
François Messier
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Social System ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Participation ◽  
Mixed Reproductive Strategy ◽  
Mating Opportunities ◽  
Breeding Seasons ◽  
Free Ranging

In mammals, parental care is primarily maternal, male participation being influenced by access to mates. We studied parental behaviours of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) in a female-biased free-ranging population over two breeding seasons, with the objective of assessing the plasticity of parental care under differing mating strategies (monogamy versus polygyny). Weaned juveniles received predominantly paternal rather than maternal care, and the care provided was both direct (i.e., food harvesting) and indirect (i.e., burrow maintenance). Parental care appeared to be affected by the multiple mating opportunities available to some males. Polygynous males provided less parental care, presumably because they devoted extra time to pursuing a multiple-mating strategy. However, polygynous males provided care only to the offspring of their first mate (i.e., a mixed reproductive strategy). Females that were secondary mates of polygynous males appeared to compensate for the lack of male assistance by increasing their level of parental care compared with primary females. These results support the view that monogamy constitutes the fundamental social system in muskrats.

scholarly journals Improved homeothermy and hypothermia in African lions during gestation

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 20160645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Trethowan ◽  
Tom Hart ◽  
Andrew J. Loveridge ◽  
Anna Haw ◽  
Andrea Fuller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Incubation Temperature ◽  
Core Body Temperature ◽  
Thermal Conditions ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Reproductive Events ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Core Body ◽  
African Lions

Mammals use endogenously produced heat to maintain a high and relatively constant core body temperature ( T b ). How they regulate their T b during reproduction might inform us as to what thermal conditions are necessary for optimal development of offspring. However, few studies have measured T b in free-ranging animals for sufficient periods of time to encounter reproductive events. We measured T b continuously in six free-ranging adult female African lions ( Panthera leo ) for approximately 1 year. Lions reduced the 24 h amplitude of T b by about 25% during gestation and decreased mean 24 h T b by 1.3 ± 0.1°C over the course of the gestation, reducing incidences of hyperthermia ( T b > 39.5°C). The observation of improved homeothermy during reproduction may support the parental care model (PCM) for the evolution of endothermy, which postulates that endothermy arose in birds and mammals as a consequence of more general selection for parental care. According to the PCM, endothermy arose because it enabled parents to better control incubation temperature, leading to rapid growth and development of offspring and thus to fitness benefits for the parents. Whether the precision of T b regulation in pregnant lions, and consequently their reproductive success, will be influenced by changing environmental conditions, particularly hotter and drier periods associated with climate change, remains to be determined.

scholarly journals Parental effects alter the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M Kilner ◽  
Giuseppe Boncoraglio ◽  
Jonathan M Henshaw ◽  
Benjamin JM Jarrett ◽  
Ornela De Gasperin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Theoretical Modelling ◽  
Parental Effects ◽  
Levels Of Care ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Behavioural Trait ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Benefits And Costs

The parents' phenotype, or the environment they create for their young, can have long-lasting effects on their offspring, with profound evolutionary consequences. Yet, virtually no work has considered how such parental effects might change the adaptive value of behavioural traits expressed by offspring upon reaching adulthood. To address this problem, we combined experiments on burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) with theoretical modelling and focussed on one adult behavioural trait in particular: the supply of parental care. We manipulated the early-life environment and measured the fitness payoffs associated with the supply of parental care when larvae reached maturity. We found that (1) adults that received low levels of care as larvae were less successful at raising larger broods and suffered greater mortality as a result: they were low-quality parents. Furthermore, (2) high-quality males that raised offspring with low-quality females subsequently suffered greater mortality than brothers of equivalent quality, which reared larvae with higher quality females. Our analyses identify three general ways in which parental effects can change the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait: by influencing the associated fitness benefits and costs; by consequently changing the evolutionary outcome of social interactions; and by modifying the evolutionarily stable expression of behavioural traits that are themselves parental effects.

scholarly journals The Role of the Immune System from an Evolutionary Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 198-209
Author(s):  
Carsten Schradin ◽  
Rainer H. Straub
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Life History Stage ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Lifetime Fitness ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Reproductive Life ◽  
Fitness Benefits

“Nothing in Biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.” This famous citation of Theodosius Dobzhansky also underlies the integrative field of evolutionary medicine, which faces the challenge to combine (patho-)physiological mechanisms with evolutionary function. Here we introduce a concept from the study of animal behavior, which are the four questions of Tinbergen that consider: 1. the ontogeny of an individual describing its development, 2. its physiological machinery, which 3. has fitness consequences influencing 4. the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of future generations. It is shown how this concept can be applied to infectious disease and to chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. Evolutionary medicine takes lifetime reproductive success into account. The hypothesis to be tested is that mechanisms underlying a disease in old age might have higher fitness benefits in the pre-reproductive and/or reproductive life history stage, leading to an overall increased lifetime fitness.

Infant Development and Parental Care in Free-Ranging Aotus azarai azarai in Argentina

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1459-1473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Rotundo ◽  
Eduardo Fernandez-Duque ◽  
Alan F. Dixson
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Infant Development ◽  
Free Ranging

scholarly journals Live long and prosper: durable benefits of early-life care in banded mongooses

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1770) ◽  
pp. 20180114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma I. K. Vitikainen ◽  
Faye J. Thompson ◽  
Harry H. Marshall ◽  
Michael A. Cant
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Developmental Effects ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Kin selection theory defines the conditions for which altruism or ‘helping’ can be favoured by natural selection. Tests of this theory in cooperatively breeding animals have focused on the short-term benefits to the recipients of help, such as improved growth or survival to adulthood. However, research on early-life effects suggests that there may be more durable, lifelong fitness impacts to the recipients of help, which in theory should strengthen selection for helping. Here, we show in cooperatively breeding banded mongooses ( Mungos mungo ) that care received in the first 3 months of life has lifelong fitness benefits for both male and female recipients. In this species, adult helpers called ‘escorts’ form exclusive one-to-one caring relationships with specific pups (not their own offspring), allowing us to isolate the effects of being escorted on later reproduction and survival. Pups that were more closely escorted were heavier at sexual maturity, which was associated with higher lifetime reproductive success for both sexes. Moreover, for female offspring, lifetime reproductive success increased with the level of escorting received per se , over and above any effect on body mass. Our results suggest that early-life social care has durable benefits to offspring of both sexes in this species. Given the well-established developmental effects of early-life care in laboratory animals and humans, we suggest that similar effects are likely to be widespread in social animals more generally. We discuss some of the implications of durable fitness benefits for the evolution of intergenerational helping in cooperative animal societies, including humans. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine’.

scholarly journals Female bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L) anticipate the immunological consequences of traumatic insemination via feeding cues

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (29) ◽  
pp. 14682-14687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Siva-Jothy ◽  
Weihao Zhong ◽  
Richard Naylor ◽  
Louise Heaton ◽  
William Hentley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Correlation ◽  
Copulatory Organ ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Bed Bugs ◽  
Temporal Cues ◽  
Infection Cycles ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Induced Immunity ◽  
Do So

Not all encounters with pathogens are stochastic and insects can adjust their immune management in relation to cues associated with the likelihood of infection within a life cycle as well as across generations. In this study we show that female insects (bed bugs) up-regulate immune function in their copulatory organ in anticipation of mating by using feeding cues. Male bed bugs only mate with recently fed females and do so by traumatic insemination (TI). Consequently, there is a tight temporal correlation between female feeding and the likelihood of her being infected via TI. Females that received predictable access to food (and therefore predictable insemination and infection cycles) up-regulated induced immunity (generic antibacterial activity) in anticipation of feeding and mating. Females that received unpredictable (but the same mean periodicity) access to food did not. Females that anticipated mating-associated immune insult received measurable fitness benefits (survival and lifetime reproductive success) despite laying eggs at the same rate as females that were not able to predict these cycles. Given that mating is a time of increased likelihood of infection in many organisms, and is often associated with temporal cues such as courtship and/or feeding, we propose that anticipation of mating-associated infection in females may be more widespread than is currently evidenced.

scholarly journals Do vampire bats groom others based on need?

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Narizano ◽  
Gerald G Carter
Keyword(s):  
Group Living ◽  
Motivational State ◽  
Negative Interaction ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Recipient Need ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract Allogrooming provides a window into the social lives of many group-living mammals and birds. The fitness benefits of allogrooming are encouraged by proximate mechanisms that make it physiologically rewarding for both actors and receivers. However, receivers might not always benefit from allogrooming. Some allogrooming decisions might be the actor’s response to cues of the recipient’s need. Other decisions might only be caused by the actor’s motivational state. To test these ideas, we studied what triggers allogrooming in common vampire bats. In test 1, subjects that had experimentally disturbed and wetted fur were more likely to be allogroomed, even when controlling for increased self-grooming. In test 2, allogrooming rates were elevated not only by receiver self-grooming (a cue for receiver need) but also by the actor’s previous self-grooming. Both effects were significantly greater than the effect of self-grooming by third parties. Interestingly, we detected a negative interaction: the positive effect of receiver need on allogrooming was smaller when the actor was previously self-grooming. This is consistent with the hypothesis that there are “receiver-driven” allogrooming decisions, which are responses to recipient need, and “actor-driven” decisions, which are not. We predict that receiver-driven allogrooming will bestow greater benefits to recipients compared with actor-driven allogrooming.

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