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© 1992 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Kinship and social behavior in wild house mice: effects of social group membership and relatedness on the responses of dominant males toward juveniles

Jane L. Hurst and C. J. Barnard

Behaviour and Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science, University of Nottingham University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

ABSTRACT

Social and sexual interactions among house mice appear to be influenced by kinship. Although such kinship effects have been interpreted as kin discrimination, they may instead reflect kin bias arising incidentally from discriminating between members of different social groups. We tested the incidental discrimination hypothesis using seminatural groups of wild house mice by looking at the effects of relatedness to other dominant males and relatedness to self on the responses of dominant adult males to juveniles reared within their own or within a neighboring social group. The results suggest that a juvenile's sire and the territorial significance of the sire have an important influence on interactions between dominant males and juveniles from their own or neighboring groups. However, the effects depend on the classes of individual involved and the context in which interactions take place. Sire-related discrimination was apparent only when neighboring groups were allowed to mix and interact. When encountering neighbors, dominant males were most aggressive toward neighbor-group juveniles sired by the neighbor-group dominant male but did not discriminate in favor of their own offspring. Aggression against own-group members was much rarer than against neighbors and appeared to arise by mistake when neighboring groups were mixing. Sire effects among own-group members were due mainly to low numbers of attacks by dominants against their own offspring when intruding in the neighbor-group territory.


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