Meeting Abstract
The social interactions that make up an animal’s social network may have important impacts on their behavior and physiology. However, the number and strength of these social relationships may be influenced by the ecology of the species and/or the behavior of an individual and this in turn can affect the individual’s behavior, physiology, and fitness. Little is currently known about these bidirectional feedbacks between social bonds, physiology, and behavior. In prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), the mating strategy of individuals varies from polygynous to socially monogamous, with a varying level of genetic monogamy among socially monogamous pairs. This variation may lead to a difference in the number of contacts a vole has with opposite-sex conspecifics and/or the strength or duration of each of these social contacts. We predicted that polygynous individuals would interact with more opposite-sex conspecifics than socially monogamous individuals. Within socially monogamous pairs, we predicted the higher the level of genetic monogamy that individuals exhibit, the fewer social interactions they would have with opposite-sex individuals. We then compared the number and strength of these social bonds with opposite-sex individuals to the number of offspring that individuals produced and the diversity of their oral microbiome. To do this, we tracked the interactions of prairie voles in semi-natural field enclosures through an automated RFID antenna system, radio telemetry, and live-trapping to measure the number and strength of social bonds between opposite-sex voles. We also collected oral microbiome samples to track changes in each vole’s microbiome. This study further enhances our understanding of the bidirectional nature of the relationship between social bonds, fitness, and ecology in a system with variable mating strategies.
