Geographic intra-specific variation in social organization is driven by population density
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Geographic intra-specific variation in social organization is driven by population density Carsten Schradin 1,2 Neville Pillay 2
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Florian Drouard 2 & Gildas Lemonnier 1,2 & Richard Askew 2 & Charlotte Anaïs Olivier 1 &
Received: 26 February 2020 / Revised: 18 August 2020 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Social flexibility enables individuals to switch between group and solitary living and is suggested to be an adaptation to varying environments. Several previous studies on different species compared two populations and hypothesized that observed differences in the social organization were due to differences in population density but lacked the necessary sample size to test this prediction. In a previous 8-year long-term study, we showed that one population of African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) displayed temporal social flexibility, living solitarily in years when population density was low but in groups in years when population density was high. Building on this temporal variation, we now tested whether geographic variation reveals the same pattern. We studied 6 populations in discrete geographical locations simultaneously, predicting more solitary living in populations with lower population density. Population density correlated significantly with the percentage of striped mice living in groups whereas other (environmental) factors were not significant. Moreover, some individuals dispersed over unoccupied habitats between these populations, switching from group to solitary living. Geographic variation in population density could make social flexibility adaptive because it allows individuals to respond quickly to the prevailing conditions they experience post dispersal. Our results suggest that geographic variation drives the evolution of social flexibility in our metapopulation of striped mice, causing intra-specific variation in its social organization, which might also be important in other species, especially in species with a fast life history. Significance statement Populations of the same species can differ in their social organization. It has often been assumed that this is due to differences in population density. We studied 6 populations of the African striped mice, showing that more mice were solitary living when population density was low. Thus, we demonstrated that population differences in social organization were due to differences in population density. Keywords Group living . Intra-specific variation . Social evolution . Social system . Social organization . Solitary living
Introduction Communicated by A. G Ophir Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02896-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Carsten Schradin [email protected] 1
CNRS, UMR7178, 67087 Strasbourg, France
2
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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