Michael A. Cant

This study shows banded mongooses use odor cues to assess MHC diversity and genetic relatedness in unfamiliar conspecifics, showing more interest in less MHC diverse and less related individuals.

This study finds that banded mongoose groups use collective self-assessment rather than mutual assessment during intergroup contests, escalating conflicts based on their own group strength.

This study shows that banded mongooses choose den sites based on the potential risks and rewards of intergroup conflict, with non-babysitting groups taking greater risks by denning near rival territories.

The paper uses mathematical models to show that kinship dynamics influence whether helpers in cooperative breeders prioritize immediate or durable benefits.

The paper examines how MHC diversity affects fitness differently in male and female banded mongooses, finding higher diversity increases male fitness but decreases female fitness.

The paper examines how personal fitness incentives in wild banded mongooses affect intergroup conflict outcomes, finding that winning fights does not always translate to higher paternity success.

This study extends kinship dynamics models to include age-linked changes in survival and fecundity, showing improved predictions of female kinship dynamics in killer whales across life stages.

The paper investigates sneaky pesterer reproductive tactics in banded mongooses, finding they are rarely used as a stepping stone but instead as a backup strategy with lower reproductive success.

This study characterizes MHC class I and II diversity in banded mongooses using high-throughput sequencing, finding higher allelic diversity in MHC-I and evidence of selection acting differently on exons 2 and 3.

The paper examines how male banded mongooses adjust reproductive activity to avoid costs of reproductive conflict, finding that older males have higher paternity and younger males face survival costs.