We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Life history consequences of social complexity: a comparative studyof ground-dwelling sciurids
- Authors
Blumstein, Daniel T.; Armitage, Kenneth B.
- Abstract
We examined life-history consequences of increased social complexityin ground-dwelling sciurid rodents. We derived a continuous metric of social complexity from demographic data. Social complexity increased with the number of age-sex 'roles' that interacted in a social group. Data were analyzed by computing phylogenetically independent contrasts and by using phylogenetic autocorrelation to estimate and then remove the maximum amount of variation in life-history variables that could be attributed to phylogenetic similarity. Analyses that incorporated estimates of phylogeny generated consistent results. As social complexity increased, a smaller proportion of adult females bred, there was a greater time to first reproduction, litter size decreased, and there was greater first-year offspring survival. Social complexityinfluenced neither gestation nor lactation time. Thus, social complexity has costs in terms of a reduction in the annual per-capita number of offspring produced but benefits in terms of enhanced offspring survival.
- Subjects
BIOGRAPHIES; REPRODUCTION
- Publication
Behavioral Ecology, 1998, Vol 9, Issue 1, p8
- ISSN
1045-2249
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/beheco/9.1.8