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Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups

Graham Birch Orcid Logo, Hazel Nichols Orcid Logo, Francis Mwanguhya, Jonathan D. Blount Orcid Logo, Michael A. Cant Orcid Logo

Royal Society Open Science, Volume: 12, Issue: 2

Swansea University Author: Hazel Nichols Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rsos.242215

Abstract

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) allow less competitive individuals to reproduce by avoiding direct fights through sneaky strategies. Within cooperatively breeding groups ARTs are rarely reported, potentially owing to observational difficulties or reproductive suppression by group members. In...

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Published in: Royal Society Open Science
ISSN: 2054-5703
Published: The Royal Society 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68966
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last_indexed 2025-03-12T05:35:40Z
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spelling 2025-03-11T15:30:01.0005768 v2 68966 2025-02-26 Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe 0000-0002-4455-6065 Hazel Nichols Hazel Nichols true false 2025-02-26 BGPS Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) allow less competitive individuals to reproduce by avoiding direct fights through sneaky strategies. Within cooperatively breeding groups ARTs are rarely reported, potentially owing to observational difficulties or reproductive suppression by group members. In societies where mating opportunities cannot be monopolized by one male, young males could use sneaky tactics as an intermediate ‘stepping-stone’ tactic to gain limited reproductive success while growing in resource-holding potential (RHP). Using decades of pedigree, weight, group demography and behavioural data, we investigated the use of sneaky ‘sneaker’ ARTs in wild male banded mongooses. In this species, groups typically contain more adult males than breeding females, leading to intense male–male competition. Instead of as a stepping-stone, sneaking tactics were typically used by males who had been displaced from mate-guarding status by stronger rivals. Additionally, sneakers had lower siring success compared with mate guards, despite similar weight loss costs, which may explain why males typically avoided reproductive activity entirely rather than sneaking. However, young sneakers gain access to older, higher fecundity females in the group and sneaking may even facilitate inbreeding avoidance. Overall, ARTs in stable social groups can predictively emerge from changes in relative RHP and social status over the lifetime. Journal Article Royal Society Open Science 12 2 The Royal Society 2054-5703 life history, cooperative breeder, alternativereproductive tactics, reproductive costs, male,mate choice 26 2 2025 2025-02-26 10.1098/rsos.242215 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee G.B received funding from NERC GW4+ (grant no. NE/S007504/1). Data collection has been funded by a ERC Starting Grant (SOCODEV, grant number 309249) and NERC (UK) Standard Grants (NE/E015441/1; NE/J010278/1) awarded to M.C. and NE/N011171 awarded to J.B and M.C. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. 2025-03-11T15:30:01.0005768 2025-02-26T10:07:28.6822987 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Graham Birch 0000-0002-7412-4095 1 Hazel Nichols 0000-0002-4455-6065 2 Francis Mwanguhya 3 Jonathan D. Blount 0000-0002-0016-0130 4 Michael A. Cant 0000-0002-1530-3077 5 68966__33785__c5692f4f0f1b479f8f3311a5d76c36cc.pdf 68966.VoR.pdf 2025-03-11T15:28:20.1444913 Output 641202 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
spellingShingle Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
Hazel Nichols
title_short Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
title_full Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
title_fullStr Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
title_full_unstemmed Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
title_sort Strategic use of male alternative reproductive tactics in cooperatively breeding banded mongoose groups
author_id_str_mv 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe
author_id_fullname_str_mv 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe_***_Hazel Nichols
author Hazel Nichols
author2 Graham Birch
Hazel Nichols
Francis Mwanguhya
Jonathan D. Blount
Michael A. Cant
format Journal article
container_title Royal Society Open Science
container_volume 12
container_issue 2
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2054-5703
doi_str_mv 10.1098/rsos.242215
publisher The Royal Society
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) allow less competitive individuals to reproduce by avoiding direct fights through sneaky strategies. Within cooperatively breeding groups ARTs are rarely reported, potentially owing to observational difficulties or reproductive suppression by group members. In societies where mating opportunities cannot be monopolized by one male, young males could use sneaky tactics as an intermediate ‘stepping-stone’ tactic to gain limited reproductive success while growing in resource-holding potential (RHP). Using decades of pedigree, weight, group demography and behavioural data, we investigated the use of sneaky ‘sneaker’ ARTs in wild male banded mongooses. In this species, groups typically contain more adult males than breeding females, leading to intense male–male competition. Instead of as a stepping-stone, sneaking tactics were typically used by males who had been displaced from mate-guarding status by stronger rivals. Additionally, sneakers had lower siring success compared with mate guards, despite similar weight loss costs, which may explain why males typically avoided reproductive activity entirely rather than sneaking. However, young sneakers gain access to older, higher fecundity females in the group and sneaking may even facilitate inbreeding avoidance. Overall, ARTs in stable social groups can predictively emerge from changes in relative RHP and social status over the lifetime.
published_date 2025-02-26T08:17:24Z
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