Social mammals: Drive him away or let him stay
Female spotted hyaenas are the determining force behind building a healthy clan. Research shows that female mate-choice is the main factor behind which group males begin their sexual career. Males that responded best to the female preferences had the highest long-term reproductive success.
Dispersal has a significant impact on lifetime reproductive success, and in group-living animals it is usually male biased. Oliver Höner and colleagues use microsatellite DNA profiling in their study and show that the responses of male hyaenas to female mate-choice rules mean that there are no specific kin discrimination mechanisms needed to avoid inbreeding. This is the first empirical study to demonstrate that male dispersal is the result of an adaptive response to female mate-choice.

CONTACT

Oliver Höner (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany)
Tel: +49 30 5168 516; E-mail: hoener@izw-berlin.de