image: A clan of meerkats
Credit: Dr Krishna Balasubramaniam
New research has found that social interactions among meerkats may be crucial to their health and survival – thanks to the sharing of beneficial gut bacteria.
Published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, the study discovered that a meerkat’s social group membership strongly influences its gut microbiome – even more than factors such as age, sex, health, genetic relatedness, diet or environmental conditions such as temperature.
Microbiomes provide many health-related benefits and a healthy microbiome containing beneficial bacteria is vital to an animal’s immunity, behaviour and overall fitness.
Meerkats live in harsh desert environments and form large social groups, known as mobs or clans. While group living is known to offer protection from predators, this new study suggests that social life may also bring important health benefits that could be crucial to their survival in such challenging conditions.
Led by Dr Krishna Balasubramaniam of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the research analysed more than 500 faecal samples from 146 wild meerkats across eight social groups at the Kalahari Research Centre in South Africa.
The researchers identified 119 types of gut bacteria and discovered that social group membership, more than any individual, social or environmental factor, had the greatest influence on the composition of a meerkat’s gut microbiome.
The researchers discovered that group membership had a greater impact on bacterial similarity than genetic relatedness, suggesting that “horizontal” transmission – the sharing of bacteria through social contact, communal spaces and behaviours such as grooming – plays a larger role than inheritance from parents.
The study also found evidence that a meerkat’s microbiome can quickly adjust when it joins a new group. Meerkats with less diverse microbiomes tended to host a subset of bacteria found in their more diverse groupmates, suggesting the presence of a shared “core” microbiome within each social group.
Lead author Dr Krishna Balasubramaniam, Senior Lecturer in Conservation and Animal Behaviour at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: “Our research uniquely shows that group living has a powerful influence on the assembly and sharing of beneficial gut bacteria in meerkats, and is a stronger effect than factors such as age, health, or environmental conditions.”
“We also identified stable co-occurrence ‘networks’ of beneficial bacteria, suggesting that these microbes form strong associations within their hosts, which could be vital for health and survival during challenging conditions such as drought or disease exposure in the desert.
“Our study offers new insights into the factors shaping microbial communities, highlighting how social dynamics may enhance the resilience of animal populations and even provide adaptive advantages.
“In animals, sociality and group living have evolved because of clear benefits such as cooperative care of young, improved access to food and protection from predators. Our findings add to growing evidence that the sharing of beneficial microbes may be another important advantage of living socially. Understanding these dynamics helps us connect social behaviour, microbiomes and animal health – and, ultimately, survival.”
The study was carried out in collaboration with Professor Simone Sommer and Dr Nadine Müller-Klein at Ulm University’s Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics. It was made possible thanks to the Kalahari Research Centre’s work at the Kuruman River Reserve, as part of ongoing research led by Professor Marta Manser of the University of Zurich and Professor Tim Clutton-Brock of the University of Cambridge, who are both also co-authors on the present study.
Journal
Journal of Animal Ecology