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Polygynandry, extra-group paternity and multiple-paternity litters in
European badger social groups
Journal
Molecular Ecology
Volume 16 Issue 24,Pages5294-5306 Published Online: 30Oct2007
Authors
HANNAH L. DUGDALE*†, DAVID W. MACDONALD*, LISA C. POPE†
and TERRY BURKE† *Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of
Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney OX13
5QL, UK, †Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of
Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
Abstract
The costs and benefits of natal philopatry are central
to the formation and maintenance of social groups. Badger groups, thought
to form passively according to the resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH),
are maintained through natal philopatry and delayed dispersal; however,
there is minimal evidence for the functional benefits of such grouping. We
assigned parentage to 630 badger cubs from a high-density population in
Wytham Woods, Oxford, born between 1988 and 2005. Our methodological
approach was different to previous studies; we used 22 microsatellite loci
to assign parent pairs, which in combination with sibship inference
provided a high parentage assignment rate. We assigned both parents to 331
cubs at ≥95% confidence, revealing a polygynandrous mating system with up
to five mothers and five fathers within a social group. We estimated that
only 27% of adult males and 31% of adult females bred each year,
suggesting a cost to group living for both sexes. Any strong motivation or
selection to disperse, however, may be reduced because just under half of
the paternities were gained by extra-group males, mainly from neighbouring
groups, with males displaying a mixture of paternity strategies. We
provide the strongest evidence to date for multiple-paternity litters, and
for the first time show that within-group and extra-group males can sire
cubs in the same litter. We investigate the factors that may play a role
in determining the degree of delayed dispersal and conclude that the
ecological constraints hypothesis, benefits of philopatry hypothesis, and
life history hypothesis may all play a part, as proposed by the broad
constraints hypothesis.
Keywords
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