Cooperation, control, and concession in meerkat groups

"Limited control" models of reproductive skew in cooperative societies sugg est that the frequency of breeding by subordinates is determined by the out come of power struggles with dominants. In contrast, "optimal skew" models suggest that dominants have full control of subordinate reproduction and al low subordinates to breed only when this serves to retain subordinates' ass istance with rearing dominants' own Litters. The results of our 7-year fiel d study of cooperative meerkats, Suricata suricatta, support the prediction s of Limited control models and provide no indication that dominant females grant reproductive concessions to subordinates to retain their assistance with future breeding attempts.