Higher sociability leads to lower reproductive success in female kangaroos.

ABSTRACT: In social mammals, social integration is generally assumed to improve females' reproductive success. Most species demonstrating this relationship exhibit complex forms of social bonds and interactions. However, female eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) exhibit differentiated social relationships, yet do not appear to cooperate directly. It is unclear what the fitness consequences of such sociability could be in species that do not exhibit obvious forms of cooperation. Using 4 years of life history, spatial and social data from a wild population of approximately 200 individually recognizable female eastern grey kangaroos, we tested whether higher levels of sociability are associated with greater reproductive success. Contrary to expectations, we found that the size of a fema

SUBMITTER: Menz CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7481692 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature