Early and adult social environments have independent effects on individual fitness in a social vertebrate.

ABSTRACT: Evidence that the social environment at critical stages of life-history shapes individual trajectories is accumulating. Previous studies have identified either current or delayed effects of social environments on fitness components, but no study has yet analysed fitness consequences of social environments at different life stages simultaneously. To fill the gap, we use an extensive dataset collected during a 24-year intensive monitoring of a population of Alpine marmots (Marmota marmota), a long-lived social rodent. We test whether the number of helpers in early life and over the dominance tenure length has an impact on litter size at weaning, juvenile survival, longevity and lifetime reproductive success (LRS) of dominant females. Dominant females, who were born into a group containing ma

SUBMITTER: Berger V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4632625 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature