Journal article
Presence of kin-biased social associations in a lizard with no parental care: the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii)
Behavioral Ecology, Vol.30(5), pp.1406-1415
2019
Abstract
Numerous studies have observed kin-biased social associations in a variety of species. Many of these studies have focused on species exhibiting parental care, which may facilitate the transmission of the social environment from parents to offspring. This becomes problematic when disentangling whether kin-biased associations are driven by kin recognition, or are a product of transmission of the social environment during ontogeny, or a combination of both. Studying kin-biased associations in systems that lack parental care may aid in addressing this issue. Furthermore, when studying kin-biased social associations, it is important to differentiate whether these originate from preferential choice or occur randomly as a result of habitat use or limited dispersal. Here, we combined high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism data with a long-term behavioral data set of a reptile with no parental care to demonstrate that eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) bias their nonrandom social associations toward their kin. In particular, we found that although the overall social network was not linked to genetic relatedness, individuals associated with kin more than expected given availability in space and also biased social preferences toward kin. This result opens important opportunities for the study of kinship-driven associations without the confounding effect of vertical transmission of social environments. Furthermore, we present a robust multiple-step approach for determining whether kin-biased social associations are a result of active social decisions or random encounters resulting from habitat use and dispersal patterns.
Details
- Title
- Presence of kin-biased social associations in a lizard with no parental care: the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii)
- Authors
- Carmen Piza Roca (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastKasha Strickland (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastNicola Kent (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastCeline H Frere (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Behavioral Ecology, Vol.30(5), pp.1406-1415
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1093/beheco/arz093
- ISSN
- 1045-2249
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; School of Education and Tertiary Access; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; GeneCology Research Centre - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451121602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
171 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Web Of Science research areas
- Behavioral Sciences
- Biology
- Ecology
- Zoology
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites