Table 3 Metadata for the focal behavioural observations of meerkat offspring.

Maternal category	Offspring features				Total observations		n focals by age (months)							n focals by location and collection period
Maternal category	n	Sex ratio (F/M/U)^a	Mean clan size	n litters	Hr	n focals	1		2	3	4	5	6	At den	Whilst ranging	AM	PM
DC	46	(20/25/1)	16.5	14	509	2199		340	409	426	311	371	342	721	1478^b	1307	892
SC	42	(19/23/0)	18.1	13	548	2231		207	504	428	415	328	349	547	1684	1359	872
DT	15	(8/7/0)	22.5	5^c	305	1231		182	171	231	259	220	168	341	890	733	498
Total unique	103	(47/55/1)	18.5	32	1362	5661		729	1084	1085	985	919	859	1609	4052^b	3399	2262

DC dominant control, SC subordinate control, DT dominant treated, F female, M male, U unassigned for pups that died prior to first capture.
^aOffspring number and litter sex ratio at emergence represent starting sample sizes, with subsequent losses over time owing to natural mortality.
^bIncludes two additional observations classified as transitionary between being at the den to ranging.
^cOf an initial 10 litters born to DT dams that carried to term (see Supplementary Fig. 4), five litters (50%) remained for behavioural testing. The other five litters either were lost pre-emergence, owing to observed infanticide by subordinates (1.5 litters), snake predation (1 litter) or unknown causes (1 litter), or were lost shortly after emergence, owing to death (0.5 litter) or taming by farmers (1 litter).

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