IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v1y2010i1d10.1038_ncomms1059.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The fitness of dispersing spotted hyaena sons is influenced by maternal social status

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver P. Höner

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

  • Bettina Wachter

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

  • Heribert Hofer

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

  • Kerstin Wilhelm

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

  • Dagmar Thierer

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

  • Fritz Trillmich

    (University of Bielefeld)

  • Terry Burke

    (University of Sheffield, Western Bank)

  • Marion L. East

    (Research Group Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research)

Abstract

Life history theory predicts that mothers should provide their offspring with a privileged upbringing if this enhances their offspring's and their own fitness. In many mammals, high-ranking mothers provide their offspring with a privileged upbringing. Whether dispersing sons gain fitness benefits during adulthood from such privileges (a 'silver spoon' effect) has rarely been examined. In this paper, we show that in the complex, female-dominated society of spotted hyaenas, high-born sons grew at higher rates, were more likely to disperse to clans offering the best fitness prospects, started reproducing earlier and had a higher reproductive value than did lower-born sons. This illustrates the evolutionary importance of maternal effects even in societies in which male size or fighting ability does not influence fitness. By demonstrating for the first time in a non-human mammal that maternal status influences immigration patterns, the study also advances our understanding of two key ecological and evolutionary processes, dispersal and habitat selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver P. Höner & Bettina Wachter & Heribert Hofer & Kerstin Wilhelm & Dagmar Thierer & Fritz Trillmich & Terry Burke & Marion L. East, 2010. "The fitness of dispersing spotted hyaena sons is influenced by maternal social status," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1059
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1059
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms1059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Weliton Menário & Wendy J King & Timothée Bonnet & Marco Festa-Bianchet & Loeske E B Kruuk, 2023. "Early-life behavior, survival, and maternal personality in a wild marsupial," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(6), pages 1002-1012.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1059. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.