News Release

Romeo and Juliet roles for banded mongooses

Banded mongooses take extraordinary risks to ensure that they find the right mate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Exeter

Mongoose Packs Fight

image: Two packs of mongoose are fighting. The pack on the right is charging in for an attack, while the other temporarily retreats. This fight was very serious and resulted in the death of one of the males. view more 

Credit: Dr Harry Marshall

Banded mongooses take extraordinary risks to ensure that they find the right mate.

Female banded mongooses risk their lives to mate with rivals during pack 'warfare' and both males and females have also learned to discriminate between relatives and non-relatives to avoid inbreeding even when mating within their own social group.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and Liverpool John Moores University found that 18% of wild banded mongoose pups are fathered by males from rival packs.

Banded mongooses are found living in stable social groups across Central and Eastern Africa. They are highly social, with most individuals remaining in their natal pack surrounded by relatives for their whole lives.

Dr Hazel Nichols, lead author of the study, from Liverpool John Moores University said: "These pups are less likely to be inbred, are heavier and have higher survival chances than their within-pack counterparts. However, their mothers risk a lot to mate with extra-pack males; aggressive encounters between packs account for 20% of pup deaths and 12% of adult deaths."

"Banded mongooses aren't the only animals that fight with rival packs. Humans, for example often engage in warfare. However banded mongooses are unusual because a lot of mating occurs during these fights, even though it is a dangerous time to decide to mate with one of your rivals!"

Dr Jennifer Sanderson, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall, who co-authored the study said: "The most exciting thing we found is that females are more likely to mate with males from rival packs if they are surrounded by unsuitable mates - such as their brothers and uncles - in their own pack. When this happens, they are much more likely to take the risk of mating with a male from another pack."

The study forms part of a 20 year project, led by Professor Michael Cant from the University of Exeter.

'Adjustment of costly extra-group paternity according to inbreeding risk in a cooperative mammal' by Hazel Nichols, Michael Cant, and Jennifer Sanderson is published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

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About the University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 19,000 students and is ranked 7th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, 10th in The Complete University Guide and 9th in the Guardian University Guide 2015. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the University ranked 16th nationally, with 98% of its research rated as being of international quality. Exeter was The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13.

The University has four campuses. The Streatham and St Luke's campuses are in Exeter and there are two campuses in Cornwall, Penryn and Truro. The 2014-2015 academic year marks the 10-year anniversary of the two Cornwall campuses. In a pioneering arrangement in the UK, the Penryn Campus is jointly owned and managed with Falmouth University. At the campus, University of Exeter students can study programmes in the following areas: Animal Behaviour, Conservation Biology and Ecology, English, Environmental Science, Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Geology, History, Human Sciences, Marine Biology, Mining and Minerals Engineering, Politics and International Relations, Renewable Energy and Zoology.

The University has invested strategically to deliver more than £350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in the past few years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange at Penryn - together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. There are plans for another £330 million of investment between now and 2016. http://www.exeter.ac.uk/cornwall

About the University of Exeter's Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC)

Staff at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, based on the Penryn Campus, undertake cutting-edge research that focusses on whole organism biology. The CEC has three interlinked research groups: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, and Evolution which constitute 40 academics and over 100 early career researchers. It engages widely with businesses, charities and government agencies and organisations in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and beyond to translate its research into societal impact. Staff at the CEC deliver educational programs to some 500 undergraduate and 100 postgraduate students.

A new £5.5 million Science and Engineering Research Support Facility (SERSF) is currently under construction at the Penryn Campus. The facility will bring pioneering business, science and engineering together and will provide space for the growing CEC alongside the University of Exeter Business School, which is expanding into Cornwall, and the University's Marine Renewables team.

The University of Exeter and Falmouth University are founding partners in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique collaboration between six universities and colleges to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council. http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/cec/


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