Post-conception reproductive competition in cooperatively breeding common marmosets

Saltzman, Wendy; Liedl, Kimber J.; Salper, Orrie J.; Pick, Rebecca R.; Abbott, David H.

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.10.005

Cited by 25 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…In a laboratory study, infants of both dominant and subordinate females (mothers and daughters in families containing an unrelated male) were vulnerable to infanticide (Saltzman et al 2008). Therefore, both dominant and subordinate breeding females may kill infants.…”

Section: What Are the Causes Of Reduced Reproductive Success In Subormentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: what can proximate mechanisms tell us about ultimate causes?

2008

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Common marmosets are cooperatively breeding monkeys that exhibit high reproductive skew: most subordinate females fail to reproduce, while others attempt to breed but produce very few surviving infants. An extensive dataset on the mechanisms limiting reproduction in laboratory-housed and freeliving subordinate females provides unique insights into the causes of reproductive skew. Non-breeding adult females undergo suppression of ovulation and inhibition of sexual behaviour; however, they receive little or no aggression or mating interference by dominants and do not exhibit behavioural or physiological signs of stress. Breeding subordinate females receive comparable amounts of aggression to non-breeding females but are able to conceive, gestate and lactate normally. In groups containing two breeding females, however, both dominant and subordinate breeders kill one another's infants. These findings suggest that preconception reproductive suppression is not imposed on subordinate females by dominants, at a proximate level, but is instead self-imposed by most subordinates, consistent with restraint models of reproductive skew. In contrast to restraint models, however, this self-suppression probably evolved not in response to the threat of eviction by dominant females but in response to the threat of infanticide. Thus, reproductive skew in this species appears to be generated predominantly by subordinate self-restraint, in a proximate sense, but ultimately by dominant control over subordinates' reproductive attempts.

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Section: What Are the Causes Of Reduced Reproductive Success In Subormentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: what can proximate mechanisms tell us about ultimate causes?

2008

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“…While the evidence is circumstantial, it does suggest the occurrence of menopause in these individuals [Tardif et al, 2008], although in neither case was the age of the female known. Alternatively, GZ could have become physiologically suppressed due to rank reversal [Saltzman et al, 2008], although this seems unlikely as she was the dominant female throughout the study. Besides GZ, the only other non-reproductive adult female was DO, which was no more than 2 years old by the end of the study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this case, toleration of breeding in subordinate females may partly compensate for reduced reproductive output through gains in inclusive fitness. A second contributing factor may have been the existence of an unresolved dominance hierarchy, which could have reduced fertility in some or even all of the females, including BT [but see Saltzman et al, 2008]. In this case, even partial suppression of the ovulatory cycle may have been reinforced by external factors, such as nutritional stress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reproductive suppression of subordinates has obvious benefits for the dominant female, by permitting the monopolisation of alloparental caregiving [Digby, 2000]. Reproductive suppression may nevertheless also benefit the subordinates by allowing them to avoid the investment of energy in the production of litters they will be unable to raise, due to either the lack of helpers, or infanticide [Saltzman et al, 2008]. Subordinates may also fail to cycle in the absence of unrelated males, as a way of avoiding inbreeding [Saltzman et al, 1997].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Four Breeding Females in a Free-Ranging Group of Buffy-Headed Marmosets (Callithrix flaviceps)

Hilário

Ferrari²

2010

IJFP

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The reproductive patterns recorded in a free-ranging group of Callithrix flaviceps were unique in a number of ways, including 4 females breeding simultaneously, a non-breeding dominant female, and a well-defined birth season. In addition, all observed copulations involved extragroup individuals. The more socially dominant breeding female had more births and more surviving offspring, on average, than subordinate females, and was implicated in at least 1 infanticide. All 4 females carried their own infants for relatively long periods following the births, apparently as a defence mechanism related to the risk of infanticide. It remains unclear whether the unusual number of breeding females in the group represents a species-specific pattern, or the result of specific local circumstances.

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“…In many cooperative societies, there is much potential for conflict, but this is not manifested in costly or overt acts (Packer and Pusey 1982;Jamieson et al 1994;Kardile and Gadagkar 2002;Endler et al 2007). In other societies, one party (e.g., a dominant individual) engages in competitive acts or attempts at suppression while others do not (Grantner and Taborsky 1998;Ratnieks and Wenseleers 2005;Saltzman et al 2008;Clutton-Brock et al 2010). During sexual reproduction, unrelated haploid genomes, which have great potential for evolutionary conflict, fuse with little actual conflict (Queller and Strassman 2009). This discrepancy between theory and data can be addressed using insights from economic rent-seeking models, The contest success function (CSF) in these models is a ratio of a focal player's effort (x i ) to either the mean or the summed efforts of all competitors ( or , respectively).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suppression of Social Conflict and Evolutionary Transitions to Cooperation

Cant

2012

The American Naturalist

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Evolutionary conflict arises at all levels of biological organization and presents a barrier to the evolution of cooperation. This barrier can be overcome by mechanisms that reduce the disparity between the fitness optima of subunits, sometimes called the "battleground" of conflict. An alternative, unstudied possibility is that effort invested in conflict is unprofitable. This possibility has received little attention because most existing models of social conflict assume that fitness depends on the ratio of players' conflict efforts, so that "peaceful" outcomes featuring zero conflict effort are evolutionarily unstable. Here I show that peaceful outcomes are stable where success depends on the difference rather than the ratio of efforts invested in conflict. These difference form models are particularly appropriate to model strategies of suppression or policing. The model suggests that incomplete information and asymmetries in strength can act to eliminate costly conflict within groups, even among unrelated individuals, and thereby facilitate the evolution of cooperation.

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Post-conception reproductive competition in cooperatively breeding common marmosets

Cited by 25 publications

References 70 publications

Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: what can proximate mechanisms tell us about ultimate causes?

Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: what can proximate mechanisms tell us about ultimate causes?

Four Breeding Females in a Free-Ranging Group of Buffy-Headed Marmosets (Callithrix flaviceps)

Suppression of Social Conflict and Evolutionary Transitions to Cooperation

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