Lindelani Makuya

Pair-Living Emerged Early in Placental Mammals

The paper challenges the assumption that early placental mammals were solitary by showing ancestral social organization included pair-living and intraspecific variation.

Thermal Refuges as Extended Phenotypes: Lodge Construction by Bush Karoo Rats

The paper studies bush Karoo rat lodges, finding they improve thermoregulation, provide predator protection, and are genetically encoded extended phenotypes shaped by ecological pressures.

Advancing cooperative breeding research with a peer-reviewed and "live" Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD)

The paper introduces Co-BreeD, a peer-reviewed and updatable database for cooperative breeding research, showing cooperative breeding is more prevalent than previously estimated.

Shared foraging grounds in a solitary rodent: indication for cooperation by kin selection and mutualism?

The study finds that kin-sharing foraging grounds in solitary bush Karoo rats indicates mutual cooperation through kin selection and mutualism.

Tolerant mothers: aggression does not explain solitary living in the bush Karoo rat

The paper shows that solitary living in bush Karoo rats is not driven by aggression but by social tolerance and dispersal.