Using an agent-based model to study the effect of reproductive skew on mongoose populations

Abstract

Reproductive skew is the unequal partitioning of breeding within social groups. Mating hierarchies emerge wherein one dominant mating pair holds an unproportional majority of the group’s reproductive benefit, while other members mate infrequently, yet allocate energy and resources toward the offspring of the dominant group members. In this paper, we use an agent-based model, which mimics mongoose populations, to investigate the effect of reproductive skew, specifically how reproductive skew affects how quickly individuals can become adapted to their environment. The results of the model show that reproductive skew does increase the rate of natural selection, which has possible practical implications in conservation biology.