Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Research on cooperatively breeding species has shown that their population dynamics differ from those of conventional breeders. Populations of cooperators are structured into groups, and group-level Allee effects are likely common. We assess the ability of phenomenological models, lacking explicit group structure, to describe population dynamics in cooperative meerkats Suricata suricatta, and we assess potential Allee effects at the population level. Using maximum likelihood model fitting and information theoretic model selection, applied to time series data from a wild meerkat population, we find simple models that incorporate rainfall and conventional density dependence to be the most parsimonious of the models considered. Detecting no population-level Allee effect, we conclude that explicit consideration of population structure will be key to understanding the mechanisms behind population dynamics in cooperatively breeding species. © 2011 The Authors.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18952.x

Type

Journal article

Journal

Oikos

Publication Date

01/05/2011

Volume

120

Pages

787 - 794