The Norway rat has important impacts on our life. They are amongst the most used research
subjects, resulting in ground-breaking advances. At the same time, wild rats live in close …

Sociality—ie, life in social groups—has evolved many times in rodents, and there is
considerable variation in the nature of these groups. While many species-typical behaviors …

Increased reproduction success, enhanced foraging and reduced predation risk are usually
regarded as major factors favouring the evolution of social behaviour. Here we formulate a …

Sociality and cooperative rearing may have evolved to increase direct fitness when
conditions are challenging to reproduction and/or to reduce environmentally induced …

The introduced feral cat (Felis catus) is a widespread generalist with flexible social
behaviour and an apex predator without major interspecific competitors in insular …

Highlights•Group living mitigates risks in many, but not all, species.•We used social network
analysis to examine benefits of group living in marmots.•Yearling females with strong social …

Social separation is thought to induce a strong stress response in social juvenile mammals,
but little is known about how this response might vary throughout the development. The …

A growing body of evidence showing that individuals of some social species live in non-kin
groups suggests kin selection is not required in all species for sociality to evolve. Here, we …

Female phenotypic masculinization is a phenomenon widely described among mammals. In
species that produce litters, female masculinization occurs in utero during late trimester of …

Comparative studies of closely related species provide a powerful means of identifying the
ecological and demographic factors associated with variation in mammalian social systems …