Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/M002977/1
Female kin as allies and adversaries under social competition
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor P Stockley, University of Liverpool, Institute of Integrative Biology
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor JL Hurst, University of Liverpool, Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour
- Grant held at:
- University of Liverpool, Institute of Integrative Biology
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Behavioural Ecology
- Adaptation
- Evolution & populations
- Abstract:
- Animals living in groups must compete for limited resources but can also be highly cooperative in their interactions. Explaining the balance between competition and cooperation is crucial to understanding social behaviour in diverse species from microbes to humans. Although theory of very broad significance provides testable predictions to explain variation in cooperative and competitive behaviours, experimental studies addressing these are currently lacking for vertebrates with typically flexible social behaviour. This project will provide novel experimental tests to determine how the social environment affects cooperative and competitive behaviour in wild house mice. Relatedness between interacting individuals is thought to be a key predictor of cooperative and competitive behaviour. If competing individuals are able to recognise their relatives, interactions with kin should be more cooperative because by helping a close relative to reproduce, an individual is still passing on some genes to the next generation indirectly. Importantly though, where competition for limited resources is intense between kin, this may reduce or even negate the benefits of cooperating. These underlying principles for understanding patterns of behaviour are particularly relevant to social vertebrates such as mammals, where related members of one sex typically stay in the social group where they were born rather than disperse. However these key general principles have proved difficult to test experimentally, in part due to limited information regarding kin recognition ability of focal species. Our latest research has identified mechanisms used by female house mice to recognise their relatives. Building on this important advance, we now propose to test for predicted responses to reproductive competition within and between female kin groups. We will manipulate the complex social environment of wild house mice under carefully controlled naturalistic conditions. Our experiments are designed to disentangle effects of competition both within and between kin groups and social groups, and will allow us to assess how responses to social competition are mediated under different conditions. We will quantify and compare the affiliative, cooperative and aggressive behaviour of female mice under contrasting conditions of relatedness of competitors and intensity of competition. Oxytocin (OT) is a peptide hormone and neurotransmitter that is currently receiving very wide attention for its important role in the regulation of social behaviour. We will test for influences of social competition on female OT profiles linked to behaviour, and for evidence that OT facilitates intergenerational transmission of cooperative behaviour among kin via communal rearing of young. We will also quantify variation in female reproductive success under contrasting levels of social competition, and test if reproductive suppression of young females in response to a known chemical cue is dependent on relatedness of competitors in their social environment. Understanding the conditions and mechanisms that promote social tolerance, aggression and reproductive suppression in mammals has very broad potential applications. As well as beneficiaries in diverse academic fields (evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, population biology, psychology, anthropology, neurobiology), the work has important potential economical and societal applications. Understanding the factors that promote social tolerance or trigger aggression is of particular significance for users who manage animals, whether wild, laboratory or livestock. These include those managing or breeding endangered animals for conservation purposes, using animals in research, and in the farming industry. The study of olfactory cues used in reproductive suppression of wild house mice is also of direct relevance to long-term development of new methods of rodent pest control, of fundamental significance to global food security.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/M002977/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grant FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £426,576
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DI - Staff | DA - Estate Costs | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £107,861 | £95,132 | £31,816 | £135,327 | £40,454 | £5,073 | £10,912 |
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