mother knows best dominant females determine offspring dispersal in red foxes (vulpes vulpes)知子莫若母主导女性决定后代分散红狐狸(vulpes vulpes).pdfVIP

Mother Knows Best: Dominant Females Determine Offspring Dispersal in Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes ) 1 2 1¤ 1 Helen M. Whiteside *, Deborah A. Dawson , Carl D. Soulsbury , Stephen Harris 1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, 2 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom Abstract Background: Relatedness between group members is central to understanding the causes of animal dispersal. In many group-living mammals this can be complicated as extra-pair copulations result in offspring having varying levels of relatedness to the dominant animals, leading to a potential conflict between male and female dominants over offspring dispersal strategies. To avoid resource competition and inbreeding, dominant males might be expected to evict unrelated males and related females, whereas the reverse strategy would be expected for dominant females. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used microsatellites and long-term data from an urban fox (Vulpes vulpes) population to compare dispersal strategies between offspring with intra- and extra-group fathers and mothers of differing social status in red foxes. Relatedness to the dominant male had no effect on dispersal in offspring of either sex, whereas there was a strong effect of relatedness to resident females on offspring dispersal independent of population density. Males with dominant mothers dispersed significantly more often than males with subordinate mothers, whereas dispersing females were significantly more likely to have subordinate mothers compared to philopatric females. Conclusions/Significanc