title: Individual dispersal decisions affect fitness via maternal rank effects in male rhesus macaques.
abstract: Natal dispersal may have considerable social, ecological and evolutionary consequences. While species-specific dispersal strategies have received much attention, individual variation in dispersal decisions and its fitness consequences remain poorly understood. We investigated causes and consequences of natal dispersal age in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), a species with male dispersal. Using long-term demographic and genetic data from a semi-free ranging population on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, we analysed how the social environment such as maternal family, group and population characteristics affected the age at which males leave their natal group. While natal dispersal age was unrelated to most measures of group or population structure, our study confirmed earlier findings that sons of high-ranking mothers dispersed later than sons of low-ranking ones. Natal dispersal age did not affect males' subsequent survival, but males dispersing later were more likely to reproduce. Late dispersers were likely to start reproducing while still residing in their natal group, frequently produced extra-group offspring before natal dispersal and subsequently dispersed to the group in which they had fathered offspring more likely than expected. Hence, the timing of natal dispersal was affected by maternal rank and influenced male reproduction, which, in turn affected which group males dispersed to.
authors: Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Germany.|Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
authors: Brigitte M
authors: BM
authors: Weiß
authors: Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Germany.|Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Kulik
authors: Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Germany.|Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.|Caribbean Primate Research Center Cayo Santiago, University of Puerto Rico, Punta Santiago, USA.
authors: Angelina V
authors: AV
authors: Ruiz-Lambides
authors: Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Germany.|Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
authors: Anja
authors: A
authors: Widdig
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D012919:Social Behavior; D012930:Social Dominance