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Reproductive females of a cooperatively breeding rodent are in better body condition when living in large groups
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Department of Biology and Environmental Science. (Ctr Ecol & Evolut Microbial Model Syst EEMiS)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3119-9510
University of Pretoria, South Africa.
University of Pretoria, South Africa.
University of Pretoria, South Africa.
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2025 (English)In: Journal of Zoology, ISSN 0952-8369, E-ISSN 1469-7998Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Cooperation and group living have been suggested to facilitate survival in varying environments and under challenging conditions. However, group living may also be associated with costs, particularly in species where individuals within groups may compete for limited resources. The costs and benefits of cooperative group living on cooperatively breeding mammals in varying environments remain unclear. Here, we use data collected from wild, cooperatively breeding Natal mole-rats (Cryptomys hottentotus natalensis) inhabiting a seasonally varying environment to assess whether body condition changes between seasons and whether these changes are contingent upon group size. We demonstrate that the body condition of reproductive females improved with increasing helper number during both the benign summer and the harsher winter seasons. However, the body condition of other group members showed little dependency on group size or season. Only when including one extremely large group did the body condition of non-breeders weakly, albeit significantly, change depending on group size and seasonality. These results suggest that larger group sizes may yield some benefits for non-breeding group members during winter and may invoke some costs during summer. Group living in Natal mole-rats is likely promoted by a combination of collective foraging, thermoregulatory benefits, and potentially some indirect fitness benefits through improved body condition of the breeding female.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Wiley , 2025.
Keywords [en]
damaraland mole-rats, cryptomys-hottentotus, complex sociality, climate, evolution, survival, benefits, family, size
National Category
Ecology
Research subject
Ecology, Evolutionary Biology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-138063DOI: 10.1111/jzo.70015ISI: 001459215800001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105001675669OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-138063DiVA, id: diva2:1952522
Available from: 2025-04-15 Created: 2025-04-15 Last updated: 2025-04-15

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Finn, Kyle T.Zöttl, Markus

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CiteExportLink to record
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