An experimental test of kin association in the house mouse

Dobson, F. Stephen; Jacquot, Catherine; Baudoin, Claude

doi:10.1139/cjz-78-10-1806

Cited by 21 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Commensal house mouse females living in polygynous reproductive units (demes) often breed communally (König 1994b;Dobson et al 2000;Dobson and Baudoin 2002), and kinship is known to facilitate female-female reproductive associations Barnard 1982, 1986;Wilkinson and Baker 1988;König 1989;Manning et al 1995;Dobson et al 2000). Our data show that familiar sisters cohabit significantly more often and are less aggressive towards each other than unfamiliar non-sisters before reproduction commences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Communal breeding is a rare phenomenon in mammals (Hayes 2000), but has been observed regularly in commensal wild house mice (Mus domesticus) under laboratory conditions (Wilkinson and Baker 1988;Manning et al 1992Manning et al , 1995König 1994b;Dobson et al 2000;Dobson and Baudoin 2002), in semi-natural enclosures (Wilkinson and Baker 1988;Manning et al 1992Manning et al , 1995König 1994b;Dobson et al 2000;Dobson and Baudoin 2002), and occasionally in feral populations (Wilkinson and Baker 1988;Manning et al 1992;Drickamer, personal communication). Commensal house mice often live in demes characterised by territorial defence polygyny (Lidicker 1976;Bronson 1979;Butler 1980;van Zegeren 1980;Singleton and Hay 1983;Wolff 1985;Gerlach 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within such demes, related females breed communally more often and more successfully than unrelated ones (Wilkinson and Baker 1988;Manning et al 1992Manning et al , 1995König 1994b;Dobson et al 2000;Dobson and Baudoin 2002). This is generally understood to reflect kin selection: while cooperative breeding would enhance individual female fitness due to synergistic effects on pup survival and development (König 1994a(König , 1994b, there is a high risk of deceptive behaviour leaving a female to invest in potentially unrelated offspring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kin-preferential cooperation, dominance-dependent reproductive skew, and competition for mates in communally nesting female house mice

Rusu

Krackow

2004

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Little is known about the behavioural mechanisms facilitating kin-preferential communal breeding in wild house mice (Mus domesticus). We evaluated the effect of kinship and male availability on aggression, social structure and reproductive skew in groups of female mice freely interacting and reproducing in seminatural indoor enclosures. Triplets of either sisters or nonsisters were established in enclosures provided with either one or three littermate males, which were unrelated and unfamiliar to the females. Sisters were more spatially associated and less aggressive than non-sisters, leading to higher incidences of communal breeding and reproduction. This is in agreement with theoretical considerations on kin selection in house mice. Reproductive success was highly skewed in favour of dominant females due to subordinate infertility or complete loss of first litters, which might have been caused by dominant females. In spite of this, subordinates only rarely dispersed from the enclosures, suggesting that perceived dispersal risk generally outweighed relatively reduced reproductive potentials. Aggression levels among females were significantly higher when one male was available, compared to when three males were available. We suggest that this might result from higher female-female competition for mates, due to the risk of missing fertilisation when synchronously oestrous females encounter limited numbers of males in a deme. Our results indicate that, first, communal nursing in house mice might have evolved to 'make the best out of a bad job' rather than to enhance offspring fitness; and, second, that female-female matecompetition might play an important role in shaping female social structure in this polygynous mammal.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kin-preferential cooperation, dominance-dependent reproductive skew, and competition for mates in communally nesting female house mice

Rusu

Krackow

2004

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Females, however, are very aggressive towards foreign females, not belonging to the same group, and especially so, when they are lactating (Crowcroft & Rowe 1963;Haug 1978;Kareem & Barnard 1982). Second, females preferentially share nests with a familiar relative (Manning et al 1992;Dobson et al 2000). Interestingly, familiarity during juvenile development is of paramount importance for improved reproductive success of females in egalitarian pairs, and overrides the effect of genetic relatedness (König 1994c), despite the fact that house mice of both sexes use genetic cues to discriminate against unfamiliar 27 kin during mate choice (for a recent review see Penn 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-offspring nursing in mammals: general implications from a case study on house mice

König

2006

Cooperation in Primates and Humans

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“…Social bonds have, for instance, been shown to reduce levels of aggression between females and the risk for infanticide in the house mouse (Dobson, Jacquot, &Baudoin, 2000), and increase the shared care for dependent young in wood mice and prairie voles (Gerlach &B artmann, 2002;Hayes &S olomon, 2004). In longitudinal studies of the effects of social bonds on wild female baboons' inclusive fitness, it was concluded that socially integrated female baboons are much more reproductively successful than females who are more solitary (Silk, Alberts, &A ltmann, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why we do things together: The social motivation for joint action

Godman¹

2013

Philosophical Psychology

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Joint action is agrowing field of research, spanning across the cognitive, behavioral, and brain sciences as well as receiving considerable attention amongst philosophers. Ia rgue that there has been asignificant oversight within this field concerning the possibility that many joint actions are driven, at least in part, by agents' social motivations rather than merely by their shared intentions. Social motivations are not directly related to the (joint) target goal of the action. Instead, when agents are mutually socially motivated in joint action this is because they find acting with others rewarding in its own right. Moreover the involvement of social motivation in joint action typically enables individuals to achieve the long-term benefits associated with being part of asocial bond. I argue that taking social motivations into account better prepares us for explaining a broader range of joint actions, including those that are of an antagonistic, competitive, or explorative character. Finally, Is how that recognizing the importance of social motivations entails that joint actions (in general) should be understood as having the two primary functions of (1) achieving the intended target outcome of an action, and (2) attaining the benefits related to being part of as ocial bond.

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An experimental test of kin association in the house mouse

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

Kin-preferential cooperation, dominance-dependent reproductive skew, and competition for mates in communally nesting female house mice

Kin-preferential cooperation, dominance-dependent reproductive skew, and competition for mates in communally nesting female house mice

Non-offspring nursing in mammals: general implications from a case study on house mice

Why we do things together: The social motivation for joint action

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