DISPERSAL, PHILOPATRY, AND GENETIC RELATEDNESS IN A SOCIAL CARNIVORE - COMPARING MALES AND FEMALES

A balance must be maintained between the proportion of individuals dis persing and the proportion remaining philopatric such that inbreeding and resource competition are minimized. Yet the relative importance of dispersal and philopatric behaviour is uncertain, especially for spec ies with complex social systems. We examine the influence of dispersal on genetic relationships of a white-nosed coati (Nasua narica: Procyo nidae) population from Panama. Field studies of the coati indicate a s ocial system in which all females are highly philopatric and live in b ands while all adult males become solitary at maturity, but do not dis perse from the home range of their natal band. Based on analyses of mu ltilocus DNA fingerprints, we confirm that female philopatry is the ru le, long-distance dispersal is rare, and that relatedness between most bands is low. However, some new bands result from fission events and these bands retain relatively high relatedness to one another for seve ral years. Adult males inhabiting the home range of a band are closely related to band members. In contrast, males and band members whose ra nges do not overlap are unrelated or only slightly related. Adult male s are also more closely related to other males whose home ranges they overlap extensively than to males whose home ranges they overlap only slightly These results indicate that males initially disperse from the ir natal bands to reduce resource competition and not to avoid inbreed ing. Inbreeding avoidance, if it occurs, results from more extensive r ange movements by males during the mating season.