Kin Discrimination in a Macropod Marsupial |
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| Authors: | Daniel T Blumstein † Jodie G Ardron† ‡ & Christopher S Evans‡ |
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| Institution: | Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA;;The Cooperative Research Centre for Conservation and Management of Marsupials, Macquarie University, Sydney;;Animal Behaviour Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Differential treatment of kin is ubiquitous in social animals. Parents often behave preferentially towards their dependent offspring. Species in several taxa also bias behaviour towards non-descendent kin. This latter phenomenon has not been demonstrated in marsupials, which are reportedly less social than eutherian mammals. We report the first evidence of non-parental kin-biased behaviour in a macropodid marsupial. Experimental pairing of individuals based on kinship reliably altered the rate of aggression between individuals in pairs of female tammar wallabies ( Macropus eugenii ). This effect is probably attributable to relatedness rather than to familiarity. Marsupial sociality may be substantially more complex than is currently recognized. |
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