Family Breakup Dynamics in a Promiscuous Solitary Mammal.

ABSTRACT: Family breakup dynamics in mammals can be complex due to competing interests between parents and offspring. Parents need to balance their own as well as their offspring's fitness through either terminating care early or extending care. Yet, males can disrupt this trade-off as they may force females to focus on future litters by separating or killing offspring, especially in species where sexually selected infanticide occurs. Here, we investigated the family breakup dynamics in brown bears (Ursus arctos) by using GPS relocation data from 144 individuals (114 unique individuals: 23 mothers, 49 offspring, and 42 adult males) in southcentral Sweden. We explored the movement of mothers, their offspring, and adjacent adult males to gain insights into the factors influencing family breakup

SUBMITTER: Heeres RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12408101 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature