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More than meets the eye: kinship and social organization in giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis)

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Abstract

Giant otters live in highly cooperative groups. Behavioral observations suggest that groups are composed of a dominant reproductive pair and their offspring of previous years. We combined genetic data and long-term ecological information to determine genetic relatedness within and between groups to verify that hypothesis. We genotyped 12 polymorphic loci of 50 otters from 13 groups and two transient individuals. The average relatedness within groups (r = 0.23) was high, but the degree of relatedness varied within the groups, including groups of unrelated individuals, contradicting the current social hypothesis of an exclusively parent-brood model. Negative correlations between kinship and distance between territories were higher in females, and on two occasions, dominant females were replaced by related subordinates of the same group. Solitary transients were males, suggesting a tendency of male-biased dispersal. These data, combined with long-term ecological and behavioral information, indicate that direct benefits, such as alloparental care, and acquisition, inheritance, and defense of high-quality territories may drive the evolution of group living of this endangered social carnivore.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul for providing logistic support. CNPq granted a scholarship to CR (# 141307/2007-2), and a research grant to GM to support the field and some of the laboratory costs (# 476939/2008-9). Laboratory support was also provided by a grant from FAPERJ-RJ. We are indebted to I. T. Carvalho for fieldwork assistance, to C. Leuchtenberger for providing blood and mucus samples, and C.A. Zucco and L.G. Oliveira-Santos for data analysis procedures. We thank L. Damasceno, S. Damasceno, and C. Marsiglia for providing essential support with the equipment importation process, and Gustavo Ribas for helping with the figures. We thank M. Gompper, E. Eizirik, C. Myiaki, I. Farias, T. Lacher, V. da Silva, F. Azevedo, and F. Rosas for suggestions to early versions of this manuscript. We also thank N. Divine who kindly revised the English of the final version of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers that helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia-INPA, Av. André Araújo, 1756, Petrópolis, CP 2223, Manaus, 69080-971, Amazonas, Brazil

    Carolina Ribas & William E. Magnusson

  2. Laboratório de Biodiversidade Molecular, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Pau Brasil, 211 CCS, Bl. A, Sl. A2-098, Ilha do Fundão, 21941-590, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Carolina Ribas, Haydée A. Cunha & Antonio Solé-Cava

  3. Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos e Bioindicadores (MAQUA), Faculdade de Oceanografia, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, Maracanã, 20550-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Haydée A. Cunha

  4. C.C.G., Rua Visconde de Pirajá n° 3, apt. 605 Ipanema, 22410-001, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Gabriel Damasceno

  5. Laboratório de Vida Selvagem, Embrapa Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro 1880, Nossa Senhora de Fátima, CP 109, Corumbá, 79320-900, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

    Carolina Ribas & Guilherme Mourão

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  1. Carolina Ribas
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  2. Haydée A. Cunha
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  3. Gabriel Damasceno
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  5. Antonio Solé-Cava
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  6. Guilherme Mourão
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Correspondence to Carolina Ribas.

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Communicated by A. I. Schulte-Hostedde

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Ribas, C., Cunha, H.A., Damasceno, G. et al. More than meets the eye: kinship and social organization in giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 70, 61–72 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2025-7

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