Sex Differences In Responsiveness To Begging In A Cooperative Mammal

In many animals, parents feed hungry young in response to begging, with mothers often responding more than fathers.


In species living in cooperative groups, both parents and helpers feed young, but less is known about how they respond to begging.


We played low and high rate begging calls to meerkats and found that, while parents and helpers respond in the same way, females are better at feeding hungrier young than males.


This may be because female meerkats stay in the group and survival of the pups matters more to them.



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