Dominique Allainé

Social interactions among individuals within a species profoundly influence behavioural and life history traits, impacting fitness. While extensively studied in cooperative and eusocial species, the effects of social environment on fitness in non-social species, particularly insects, remain less explored. Our study investigates the impact of social...

Studying natal dispersal in natural populations using capture–recapture data is challenging as an unknown proportion of individuals leaves the study area when dispersing and are never recaptured. Most dispersal (and survival) estimates from capture–recapture studies are thus biased and only reflect what happens within the study area, not the popula...

An increasing number of ecological monitoring programmes rely on photographic capture–recapture of individuals to study distribution, demography and abundance of species. Photo‐identification of individuals can sometimes be done using idiosyncratic coat or skin patterns, instead of using tags or loggers. However, when performed manually, the task o...

An increasing number of ecological monitoring programs rely on photographic capture-recapture of individuals to study distribution, demography and abundance of species. Photo-identification of individuals can sometimes be done using idiosyncratic coat or skin patterns, instead of using tags or loggers. However, when performed manually, the task of...

Significance In human populations, women live longer than men. While it is commonly assumed that this pattern of long-lived females vs. short-lived males constitutes the rule in mammals, the magnitude of the sex differences in lifespan and increase of mortality rate with advancing age remain to be quantified. Here, we demonstrate that, in the wild,...

In animal societies, individuals can cooperate in a variety of tasks, including rearing young. Such cooperation is observed in complex social systems, including communal and cooperative breeding. In mammals, both these social systems are characterized by delayed dispersal and alloparenting, whereas only cooperative breeding involves reproductive su...

Some species responded successfully to prehistoric changes in climate [1,2], while others failed to adapt, and became extinct [3]. The factors that determine successful climate adaptation remain poorly understood. We constructed a reference genome and studied physiological adaptations in the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota), a large ground-dwelling...

Sociality modulates life-history traits through changes in resource allocation to fitness-related traits. However, how social factors at different stages of the life cycle modulate senescence remains poorly understood. To address this question, we assessed the influence of social environment in both early life and adulthood on actuarial senescence...

The Alpine Marmot ( Marmota marmota ) is a rodent remnant of the ‘ice-age’ climate of the Pleistocene steppe, and since the disappearance of this habitat, persists in the high altitude Alpine meadow. Sequencing its genome, we reveal that the long-term cold-climate adaptation has altered its metabolism, in particular biosynthesis and storage of fatt...

In cooperative breeders, reproductive skew is extreme and leads to intense intrasexual competition for access to reproduction in both sexes. Given that securing the dominant position is costly, dominant animals should direct their aggressiveness towards same-sex subordinates that are potential competitors. Chemical communication has been reported t...

The de‐lifing method (Coulson et al., 2006, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences , 273 , 547), though very promising for studying ecological and evolutionary changes, has been scarcely used to identify factors influential on fitness. Through simulations representative of a variety of iteroparous species, we establish th...

Despite being identified an area that is poorly understood regarding the effects of climate change, behavioural responses to climatic variability are seldom explored. Climatic variability is likely to cause large inter-annual variation in the frequency of extra-pair litters produced, a widespread alternative mating tactic to help prevent, correct o...

We investigated age-specific variation in survival of dominant individuals in a long-lived and monogamous mammal, the alpine marmot (Marmota marmota), from a large dataset collected during a 24-year intensive monitoring of a free-ranging population. We found evidence of actuarial senescence in dominant individuals for both sexes. Survivorship was c...

Appendix S1. Molecular analyses and genetic markers characteristics. Table S1. Primer pairs used for microsatellite and MHC genotyping. Table S2. Characteristics of 16 microsatellites of Alpine marmots. Table S3. Tags used to barcode individuals for next generation sequencing. Table S4. Allelic frequencies of the two MHC loci of Alpine marmots....

Appendix S2. Estimation of relatedness with pedigree and correlations between (1) the relatedness estimated with the pedigree and the relatedness estimated estimated with the Queller and Goodnight (1989) and (2) the relatedness estimated with the pedigree and the MHC proteic dissimilarity.

Appendix S3. Effect of the spatial distance on males and pairs genetic characteristics.

Morphological changes following changes in species' distribution and phenology have been suggested to be the third universal response to global environmental change. Although structural size and body mass result from different genetic, physiological and ecological mechanisms, they are used interchangeably in studies evaluating population responses...

In the context of global change, an increasing challenge is to understand the interaction between weather variables and life histories. Species‐specific life histories should condition the way climate influences population dynamics, particularly those that are associated with environmental constraints, such as lifestyles like hibernation and social...

In social species, the hierarchical status of an individual has important consequences for its fitness. While many studies have focused on individual condition to explain access to dominance, very few have investigated the influence of the social environment, especially during early life. Yet it is known that environmental conditions early in life...

Sociality should evolve when the fitness benefits of group living outweigh the costs. Theoretical models predict an optimal group size maximizing individual fitness. However, beyond the number of individuals present in a group, the characteristics of these individuals, like their sex, are likely to affect the fitness payoffs of group living. Using...

Online resource 1: Genetic and kinship analyses. Online resource 2: Fate diagram and recapture histories construction. Online resource 3: Multi-Event model construction using E-SURGE. Online resource 4: Goodness Of Fit tests and selection of the root model.

Evidence that the social environment at critical stages of life-history shapes individual trajectories is accumulating. Previous studies have identified either current or delayed effects of social environments on fitness components, but no study has yet analysed fitness consequences of social environments at different life stages simultaneously. To...

Studying the different roles of adaptive genes is still a challenge in evolutionary ecology and requires reliable genotyping of large numbers of individuals. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques enable such large-scale sequencing, but stringent data processing is required. Here, we develop an easy to use methodology to process amplicon-based...

Although long neglected, female competition is widespread and may have stronger evolutionary consequences than previously thought. In singular breeders, reproductive success is conditional on social status, and intrasexual competition for the dominant position can be particularly severe in females. Because the ability of females to secure the domin...

The way that plants and animals respond to climate change varies widely among species, but the biological features underlying their actual response remains largely unknown. Here, from a 20-year monitoring study, we document a continuous decrease in litter size of the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) since 1990. To cope with harsh winters, Alpine mar...

Sex-specific senescence has been commonly reported in highly dimorphic and polygynous species. However, whether between-sex differences in senescence occur in monogamous and monomorphic species is poorly known. In this study, we used an extensive dataset of 20 years of mass measurements on free-ranging male and female Alpine marmots (Marmota marmot...

Movement is fundamental to individual and population dynamics, as it allows individuals to meet their basic requirements. Although movement patterns reflect interactions between internal and external factors, only few studies have examined the effects of these factors on movement simultaneously, and they generally focused on particular biological c...

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes code for proteins that play a critical role in the immune system response. The MHC genes are among the most polymorphic genes in vertebrates, presumably due to balancing selection. The two MHC classes appear to differ in the rate of evolution, but the reasons for this variation are not well understoo...

1. Identification of suitable habitats for small, endangered populations is important to preserve key areas for potential augmentation. However, replicated spatial data from a sufficient number of individuals are often unavailable for such populations, leading to unreliable habitat models. This is the case for the endangered Pyrenean brown bear Urs...

Paternity insurance and dominance tenure length are two important components of male reproductive success, particularly in species where reproduction is highly skewed towards a few individuals. Identifying the factors affecting these two components is crucial to better understand the pattern of variation in reproductive success among males. In soci...

Habitat preferences of alpine marmots, Marmota marmota, were investigated at two sites in the French Alps. The use of a logistic-linear model allowed us to model the probability of marmot settlement in different ecological situations. Marmots preferred sites with a southern or eastern aspect (where snow melts relatively early), intermediate slopes,...

Three main hypotheses have been proposed to explain mate switching in monogamous species: the “better option” hypothesis, the incompatibility hypothesis, and the “forced divorce” hypothesis. We tested the predictions of these hypotheses for the first time in a monogamous mammal using long-term data from a natural population of Alpine marmots (Marmo...

In human-dominated landscapes, species with large spatial requirements, such as large carnivores, have to deal with human infrastructure and activities within their home ranges. This is the case for the brown bear (Ursus arctos L., 1758) in Scandinavia, which is colonizing more human-dominated landscapes, leading inevitably to an overlap between th...

We report the first case of directly observed infanticide in the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota). Moreover, previous and present observations suggest that 12 young could have been killed by infanticide in the population under study. The bodies of five of them were found with similar neck injuries. In all cases, infanticidal animals were adult males...

The fitness consequences of heterozygosity and the mechanisms underpinning them are still highly controversial. Using capture-mark-recapture models, we investigated the effects of individual heterozygosity, measured at 16 microsatellite markers, on age-dependent survival and access to dominance in a socially monogamous mammalian species, the alpine...

Using the genetic estimates of paternity available for 22 species of socially monogamous mammals, we investigated the impact of the social structure and of the type of pair bonding on the interspecific variations of extra-pair paternity rates. To this purpose, we classified species in three categories of social structure-solitary, pair or family-li...

Le "Groupe Climat" du Parc national de la Vanoise, créé en 2006 à l'initiative de son Conseil scientifique, apporte les premières informations relatives à l'évolution climatique du massif montagneux considéré. Les conclusions actuelles se fondent sur l'analyse statistique de 2 160 moyennes mensuelles de la température, collectées par Météo-France (...

Heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) are increasingly reported but the underlying mechanisms causing HFCs are generally poorly understood. Here, we test for HFCs in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) using 22 neutral microsatellites widely distributed in the genome and four microsatellites in genes that are potentially under selection. Juvenile s...

Extrapair paternity is widespread in birds and mammals. In particular, the alpine marmot, Marmota marmota, has a high frequency of extrapair paternity that seems to be explained by the genetic compatibility hypothesis. We investigated whether the number and proportion of extrapair young depend on the heterozygosity (individual genetic diversity) of...

The aim of this study is to empirically illustrate the importance of taking movement constraints into account when testing for habitat selection with telemetry data. Global Positioning System relocations of two Scandinavian brown bears were used to compare the results of two different tests of habitat selection by the bears within their home range....

Sexual selection theory traditionally considers choosiness for mates to be negatively related to intra-sexual competition. Males were classically considered to be the competing, but not the choosy, sex. However, evidence of male choosiness is now accumulating. Male choosiness is expected to increase with an individual's competitive ability, and to...

1. In socially monogamous species, females may seek extra-pair copulation to gain genetic benefits. In order to test this 'genetic quality' hypothesis, one must compare the performance of extra-pair young (EPY) and within-pair young (WPY). Such tests, however, are scarce and results published so far are inconclusive. 2. Here, we test the 'genetic q...

Assuming that a male’s genetic characteristics affect those of his offspring, extra-pair copulation has been hypothesized to increase heterozygosity of the progeny—the “genetic compatibility” hypothesis—and the genetic diversity within litters—the “genetic diversity” hypothesis. We tested these two hypotheses in the alpine marmot (Marmota marmota),...

For species in which reproductive success is more variable in one sex than the other, the Trivers and Willard model (TWM) predicts that females are able to adjust their offspring sex ratio. High-quality mothers should provide greater investment to one sex than the other. Previous tests of the TWM have been inconsistent, and whether the TWM applies...