Kinship influences sperm whale social organization within, but generally not among, social units

Christine M. Konrad; Shane Gero; Timothy Frasier; Hal Whitehead

doi:10.1098/rsos.180914

Kinship influences sperm whale social organization within, but generally not among, social units

Christine M. Konrad, Shane Gero, Timothy Frasier, Hal Whitehead

Medicine

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32 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Sperm whales have a multi-level social structure based upon long-term, cooperative social units. What role kinship plays in structuring this society is poorly understood. We combined extensive association data (518 days, during 2005 - 2016) and genetic data (18 microsatellites and 346 bp mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences) for 65 individuals from 12 social units from the Eastern Caribbean to examine patterns of kinship and social behaviour. Social units were clearly matrilineally based, evidenced by greater relatedness within social units (mean r ¼ 0.14) than between them (mean r ¼ 0.00) and uniform mtDNA haplotypes within social units. Additionally, most individuals (82.5%) had a first-degree relative in their social unit, while we found no first-degree relatives between social units. Generally and within social units, individuals associated more with their closer relatives (matrix correlations: 0.18 - 0.25). However, excepting a highly related pair of social units that merged over the study period, associations between social units were not correlated with kinship (p . 0.1). These results are the first to robustly demonstrate kinship's contribution to social unit composition and association preferences, though they also reveal variability in association preferences that is unexplained by kinship. Comparisons with other matrilineal species highlight the range of possible matrilineal societies and how they can vary between and even within species.

Idioma original	English
Número de artículo	180914
Publicación	Royal Society Open Science
Volumen	5
N.º	8
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180914
Estado	Published - ago. 1 2018

Nota bibliográfica

Funding Information:
work and edited the manuscript; H.W. funded the field operations and contributed funds to the laboratory work, participated in the collection of the field data and edited the manuscript. All authors collaborated in the conception and design of the study and gave final approval for publication. Competing interests. We have no competing interests. Funding. Fieldwork was funded through a Carlsberg Foundation field expedition grant and an FNU fellowship from the Danish Council for Independent Research supplemented by a Sapere Aude Research Talent Award to S.G., as well as by Discovery and Equipment grants to H.W. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and by a Discovery Development Grant from NSERC to T.F. Supplementary funding was provided through a FNU Large Frame Grant to Peter Madsen from Aarhus University. S.G. is supported by a technical and scientific research grant from the Villum Foundation, and C.K. by a NSERC CGS, a Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship and the Patrick F. Lett Fund. Acknowledgements. We thank Mr Riviere Sebastien and the Dominica Fisheries Division officers, staff at the Anchorage Hotel, Dive Dominica, Al Dive, and W.E.T. Dominica for logistical support while in Dominica; all the crews of R/ V Balaena; and Peter Madsen and the crew members from the Marine Bioacoustics Lab at Aarhus University. We thank our two anonymous reviewers for their constructive reviews. This paper emanates from The Dominica Sperm Whale Project—http://www.thespermwhaleproject.org. Follow @DomWhale.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors.

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abstract = "Sperm whales have a multi-level social structure based upon long-term, cooperative social units. What role kinship plays in structuring this society is poorly understood. We combined extensive association data (518 days, during 2005 - 2016) and genetic data (18 microsatellites and 346 bp mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences) for 65 individuals from 12 social units from the Eastern Caribbean to examine patterns of kinship and social behaviour. Social units were clearly matrilineally based, evidenced by greater relatedness within social units (mean r ¼ 0.14) than between them (mean r ¼ 0.00) and uniform mtDNA haplotypes within social units. Additionally, most individuals (82.5%) had a first-degree relative in their social unit, while we found no first-degree relatives between social units. Generally and within social units, individuals associated more with their closer relatives (matrix correlations: 0.18 - 0.25). However, excepting a highly related pair of social units that merged over the study period, associations between social units were not correlated with kinship (p . 0.1). These results are the first to robustly demonstrate kinship's contribution to social unit composition and association preferences, though they also reveal variability in association preferences that is unexplained by kinship. Comparisons with other matrilineal species highlight the range of possible matrilineal societies and how they can vary between and even within species.",

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note = "Funding Information: work and edited the manuscript; H.W. funded the field operations and contributed funds to the laboratory work, participated in the collection of the field data and edited the manuscript. All authors collaborated in the conception and design of the study and gave final approval for publication. Competing interests. We have no competing interests. Funding. Fieldwork was funded through a Carlsberg Foundation field expedition grant and an FNU fellowship from the Danish Council for Independent Research supplemented by a Sapere Aude Research Talent Award to S.G., as well as by Discovery and Equipment grants to H.W. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and by a Discovery Development Grant from NSERC to T.F. Supplementary funding was provided through a FNU Large Frame Grant to Peter Madsen from Aarhus University. S.G. is supported by a technical and scientific research grant from the Villum Foundation, and C.K. by a NSERC CGS, a Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship and the Patrick F. Lett Fund. Acknowledgements. We thank Mr Riviere Sebastien and the Dominica Fisheries Division officers, staff at the Anchorage Hotel, Dive Dominica, Al Dive, and W.E.T. Dominica for logistical support while in Dominica; all the crews of R/ V Balaena; and Peter Madsen and the crew members from the Marine Bioacoustics Lab at Aarhus University. We thank our two anonymous reviewers for their constructive reviews. This paper emanates from The Dominica Sperm Whale Project—http://www.thespermwhaleproject.org. Follow @DomWhale. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors.",

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Kinship influences sperm whale social organization within, but generally not among, social units

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