Research Results
This research has continued to investigate the evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of animal societies, focusing in particular on the evolution of cooperative behaviour, using meerkats as a model. 2009 saw the publication of several general reviews that set the results of this work in the context of other animal societies and derive general conclusions concerning their evolution and ecology.
In particular, Earthwatch scientists have reviewed the evolution of cooperation between non-kin in animals and argued that it is maintained principally by mutualism (a relationship between two individuals where both some sort of benefit from being in the relationship) (1). In addition, they have assessed the selection pressures operating on females through intrasexual competition and suggested that there are close parallels with the operation of sexual selection in males (2).
Work on begging has shown that begging rates reflect the hunger of pups and are used by helpers to adjust the frequency with which they feed them (3-5).
Ecological work has continued to explore the way in which population density is regulated and we have begun to structure the first quantitative models of the dynamics of the population.
Finally, scientists leading this project have developed diagnostic tests for bovine tuberculosis (TB) in meerkats and other mongooses (6, 7) and used network analysis to investigate its transmission within and between groups (8).
Fieldwork at the Kuruman River Reserve has continued to monitor the growth, breeding success and survival of all individuals in seventeen distinct, habituated groups of meerkats (Suricata suricatta). In the two previous years, a number of study groups became extinct or unhabituated and work in the past years has concentrated on increasing the number of groups the project works with, which is now back to 2005 levels.
1. Clutton-Brock, T. (2009) Cooperation between non-kin in animal societies. Nature 462: 51-57.
2. Clutton-Brock, T. (2009) Sexual selection in females. Animal Behaviour 77: 3-11.
3. Madden, J. R., H.-J. P. Kunc, S. English, M. B. Manser, T. Clutton-Brock (2009) Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging
behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 63: 1259-1268.
4. Madden, J. R., H.-J. Kunc, S. English, M. B. Manser, T. Clutton-Brock (2009) Calling in the gap: competition or cooperation in littermates' begging behaviour? Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276 (1660): 1255-1262.
5. Madden, J. R., H.-J. P. Kunc, S. English, T. H. Clutton-Brock (2009) Why do meerkat pups stop begging? Animal Behaviour 78: 85-89.
6. Drewe, Julian A., Gillian S. Dean, Anita L. Michel, Konstantin P. Lyashchenko, Rena Greenwald, Gareth P. Pearce (2009) Accuracy of three diagnostic tests for determining Mycobacterium bovis infection status in live-sampled wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 21: 31-39.
7. Drewe, J. A., A. K. Foot, R. L. Sutcliffe, G. P. Pearce (2009) Pathology of Mycobacterium bovis Infection in Wild Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) Journal of Comparative Pathology, 140 (1): 12-24.
8. Drewe J. A. (2009) Social networks and infectious disease transmission: epidemiology of tuberculosis in wild meerkats. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.