Fig. 5: Bias in female investment and cost per own offspring reared within sister or unrelated pairs.
From: Cryptic kin discrimination during communal lactation in mice favours cooperation between relatives
Food intake (milk production) of individual females did not depend on own litter size (a) but on the combined litter size (b). Proportional bias in individual female food intake and in investment gained by pups from each female (regardless of maternal relatedness) was higher in sister (red) than unrelated (blue) pairs during lactation (c). Female energetic investment, assessed as food intake over the 7 d labelling period, was higher in unrelated females whether they had the higher or lower intake within each pair (d). Female energetic investment per own pup reared according to the difference in the number of own versus partner’s pups in the communal nest (e). Data are for individual females (circles) in n = 8 pairs of sisters and n = 8 pairs of unrelated females (a, b, e), or median bias ± IQR boxes with whiskers showing full range for females or individual pups (c, d). Regression lines shown where there was a significant relationship (solid lines).
