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Disease avoidance, and breeding group age and size condition the dispersal patterns of western lowland gorilla females
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Disease avoidance, and breeding group age and size condition the dispersal patterns of western lowland gorilla females

Alice Baudouin, Sylvain Gatti, Florence Levrero, Celine Genton, Romane H Cristescu, Vincent Billy, Peggy Motsch, Jean-Sebastien Pierre, Pascaline Le Gouar and Nelly Menard
Ecology, Vol.100(9), e02786
2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2786
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Abstract

skin disease social dispersal female emigration and immigration breeding male quality social environment polygynous mammal gorillas
Social dispersal is an important feature of population dynamics. When female mammals occur in polygynous groups, their dispersal decisions are conditioned by various female-, male-, and group-related factors. Among them, the influence of disease often remains difficult to assess. To address this challenge, we used long-term monitoring data from two gorilla populations (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) affected by infectious skin disease lesions. After controlling for other potentially influential factors, we investigated to which extend disease avoidance drives the dispersal decisions of gorilla females. We showed that the infection of a silverback of a breeding group by the skin disease increased the probability of adult females to emigrate. Moreover, adult females avoided breeding groups with a high prevalence of skin disease by emigrating from them and immigrating into healthier ones. Age of the breeding group was also an important factor. Adult females left older groups, near the end of a male tenure, to join younger ones led by younger fully-grown silverbacks that could be of high reproductive and protective value. Our study highlights that, while females select for high quality males, disease avoidance is a critical driver of their dispersion decision.

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