Mate desertion in response to female promiscuity in the socially monogamous aardwolf Proteles cristatus

In most monogamous breeding systems males demonstrate a high degree of paternal care. With the significant costs of this parental investment, it is clearly in the interests of males to raise only their own offspring. It has therefore been predicted, but never observed in the field, that if the female of a monogamous male is promiscuous, he will desert her and attempt to breed with an alternative female. Here we report a case of such a mate desertion in the aardwolf Proteles cristatus. We suggest, however, that mate desertion should occur only rarely in response to female promiscuity. This is because a cuckolded male may still be raising some of his own offspring, and should desert only on the rare occasions when an alternative receptive female is exclusively available to himself

Extension of the diet of an extreme foraging specialist, the aardwolf (Proteles cristata)

The aardwolf, Proteles cristata, is a highly specializedmyrmecophagous carnivore that feeds almost exclusivelyon termites of the genus Trinervitermes. Herewe report data from an ongoing analysis of aardwolfdiet, where we documented remains of sun spidersand scorpions in aardwolf scats. Although the prevalenceof these items was low, with sun spiders recordedin nine and scorpion remains in one of 246 scats, ourobservations suggest that aardwolves opportunisticallyfeed on larger prey than previously thought.However, our observations do not suggest thataardwolves utilized these large prey items as alternativesto their main food resource during periods offood scarcity. Therefore, we suggest that the adaptiveadvantages of such opportunism may be small, butthat the observed behavioural plasticity could beadvantageous under specific environmental conditionsand therefore is maintained as a behavioural trait

Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

If the large brains and great intelligence characteristic of primates were favoured by selection pressures associated with life in complex societies, then cognitive abilities and nervous systems with primate-like attributes should have evolved convergently in non-primate mammals living in large, elaborate societies in which social dexterity enhances individual fitness. The societies of spotted hyenas are remarkably like those of cercopithecine primates with respect to size, structure and patterns of competition and cooperation. These similarities set an ideal stage for comparative analysis of social intelligence and nervous system organization. As in cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas use multiple sensory modalities to recognize their kin and other conspecifics as individuals, they recognize third-party kin and rank relationships among their clan mates, and they use this knowledge adaptively during social decision making. However, hyenas appear to rely more intensively than primates on social facilitation and simple rules of thumb in social decision making. No evidence to date suggests that hyenas are capable of true imitation. Finally, it appears that the gross anatomy of the brain in spotted hyenas might resemble that in primates with respect to expansion of frontal cortex, presumed to be involved in the mediation of social behaviour