Creel, Scott., IBN 94-19452 Mechanisms and Evolution of Reproductive Suppression This project will continue a study of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). begun June 1991 in Tanzania s Selous Game Reserve. African wild dogs are an endangered species. Estimates of the number living in the wild range from 4000 to 6000. The Selous Game Reserve is the largest protected area on the continent, and holds the largest remaining population of wild dogs (880 individuals). This research is part of a larger program to understand and reverse the wild dogs decline. Within a typical wild dog pack (of up to 20 adults), only the socially dominant pair breeds. This study will address the question of why social subordinates do not breed, even though they are reproductively mature.. Two approaches will be used. First, demographic and genetic data will be gathered to test a mathematical model of the evolution of reproductive suppression. Second, behavioral and hormonal data will be collected in the wild, to determine what physiological and behavioral mechanisms prevent reproduction by subordinates. This research addresses two issues of broad significance. First, it examines the manner in which social status affects reproduction (an issue with direct relevance for human reproduction, and for captive breeding of other endangered species). Second, it examines the causes of decline of an endangered animal, in the hope of ensuring its survival in the wild.
