Differences in cooperative behavior among Damaraland mole rats are consequences of an age-related polyethism

In many cooperative breeders, the contributions of helpers to cooperative activities change with age, resulting in age-related polyethisms. In contrast, some studies of social mole rats (including naked mole rats, Heterocephalus glaber, and Damaraland mole rats, Fukomys damarensis) suggest that indi...

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Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2016-09, Vol.113 (37), p.10382-10387
Main Authors: Zöttl, Markus, Vullioud, Philippe, Mendonça, Rute, Ticó, Miquel Torrents, Gaynor, David, Mitchell, Adam, Clutton-Brock, Tim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging - genetics
Aging - physiology
Animal behavior
Animal reproduction
Animals
Biological Sciences
Body Weight - genetics
Body Weight - physiology
Breeding
Cooperative Behavior
Female
Insects
Male
Mole Rats - genetics
Mole Rats - physiology
Rats
Rodents
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
Social Behavior
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Summary:In many cooperative breeders, the contributions of helpers to cooperative activities change with age, resulting in age-related polyethisms. In contrast, some studies of social mole rats (including naked mole rats, Heterocephalus glaber, and Damaraland mole rats, Fukomys damarensis) suggest that individual differences in cooperative behavior are the result of divergent developmental pathways, leading to discrete and permanent functional categories of helpers that resemble the caste systems found in eusocial insects. Here we show that, in Damaraland mole rats, individual contributions to cooperative behavior increase with age and are higher in fast-growing individuals. Individual contributions to different cooperative tasks are intercorrelated and repeatability of cooperative behavior is similar to that found in other cooperatively breeding vertebrates. Our data provide no evidence that nonreproductive individuals show divergent developmental pathways or specialize in particular tasks. Instead of representing a caste system, variation in the behavior of nonreproductive individuals in Damaraland mole rats closely resembles that found in other cooperatively breeding mammals and appears to be a consequence of age-related polyethism.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1607885113