Meeting Abstract

P1.159  Tuesday, Jan. 4  Leadership Behavior in Banded Mongooses (Mungos mungo) FAIRBANKS, B.M.*; ALEXANDER, K.S.; HAWLEY, D.M.; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech bonniemf@vt.edu

In many species of social animals, leadership of the group is strictly allocated to one sex, and often to one individual within the group. A leader is an individual that begins the movement of the group from their current location towards a new location. In banded mongooses, leadership occurs when one individual begins walking in one direction with fast, low, repetitive calls. If the individual is successful at making the troop move, others will follow and make a similar call, but often more slowly and at a higher pitch. The individual attempting to lead fails when no one follows and will usually return to the troop and stop the leadership call. Banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) show variable leadership behavior, in that both males and females can lead the group from one location to another. Overall, there is a male bias in leadership (males lead 50% more than females). Adults lead more commonly than subadults (90% adult leadership). Different individuals within each troop may lead at different times; at least 10 individuals have been observed leading in a single troop at different times. Recurring leadership by specific individuals may be stronger in smaller troops. Overall, these results are consistent with the egalitarian social structure of the banded mongooses, where motivation plays a larger role than dominance in winning social conflicts. Additionally, leadership behavior may be one characteristic of a behavioral syndrome of bold individuals. Future research will explore behavioral syndromes (“personality”) in banded mongooses and their role in the incidence of a novel strain of Mycobacterium circulating in this species in northern Botswana.