Sabit Hasan, Hassan Al-Razi, Tanvir Ahmed, Habibon Naher, S. Muzaffar
{"title":"Observation of Infanticide in the Particolored Flying Squirrel (Hylopetes alboniger) from a Forest in Northeastern Bangladesh","authors":"Sabit Hasan, Hassan Al-Razi, Tanvir Ahmed, Habibon Naher, S. Muzaffar","doi":"10.3106/ms2020-0098","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Infanticide, the intentional killing of conspecific infants, has been observed widely in mammals, including squirrels. Several ground squirrels revealed this behavioral anomaly, yet no report has been published on the flying squirrels. We report an observation of killing an infant of the particolored flying squirrel (Hylopetes alboniger) by a conspecific adult intruder in Satchari National Park of northeast Bangladesh. Among the several adaptive explanations for infanticide, our observations point to sexual selection in males that confers a competitive advantage by making females receptive. However, the resource competition hypothesis, where the intruder's offsprings gain access to resources as a result of the infanticide cannot be ruled out. Extensive studies are needed to document the extent of infanticide in flying squirrels and their adaptive significance.","PeriodicalId":49891,"journal":{"name":"Mammal Study","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mammal Study","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3106/ms2020-0098","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ZOOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract. Infanticide, the intentional killing of conspecific infants, has been observed widely in mammals, including squirrels. Several ground squirrels revealed this behavioral anomaly, yet no report has been published on the flying squirrels. We report an observation of killing an infant of the particolored flying squirrel (Hylopetes alboniger) by a conspecific adult intruder in Satchari National Park of northeast Bangladesh. Among the several adaptive explanations for infanticide, our observations point to sexual selection in males that confers a competitive advantage by making females receptive. However, the resource competition hypothesis, where the intruder's offsprings gain access to resources as a result of the infanticide cannot be ruled out. Extensive studies are needed to document the extent of infanticide in flying squirrels and their adaptive significance.
期刊介绍:
Mammal Study is the official journal of the Mammal Society of Japan. It publishes original articles, short communications, and reviews on all aspects of mammalogy quarterly, written in English.