Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (32)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Braude, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Braude, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Behavioral Ecology Vol. 11 No. 1: 7-12
© 2000 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Dispersal and new colony formation in wild naked mole-rats: evidence against inbreeding as the system of mating

Stanton Braude

Biology Department, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA, and The International Center for Tropical Ecology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA

Address correspondence to S. Braude, Biology Department, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Box 1137, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. E-mail: braude{at}biology.wustl.edu .

Early field work on naked mole-rats, Heterocephalus glaber, suggested that small colonies are rare and that colonies can only form by fissioning of existing colonies. Many researchers expected that this would result in extreme inbreeding and high relatedness within colonies and would thus explain the evolution of eusociality in naked mole-rats. Here I report evidence of dispersers and outbreeding in colonies of wild naked mole-rats that suggests that inbreeding is not the system of mating for this species and that outbreeding is probably frequent. Wild dispersers have the same morphology as was reported for dispersers in laboratory colonies. Low levels of genetic variation in previous molecular genetic studies of naked mole-rats probably result from the viscous population structure typical of fossorial rodents.

Key words: dispersal, eusociality, Heterocephalus glaber, inbreeding, naked mole-rat.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
R. Cooney
Colony defense in Damaraland mole-rats, Cryptomys damarensis
Behav. Ecol., March 1, 2002; 13(2): 160 - 162.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.