DOI: 10.5061/dryad.d51c5b07m
title: Data from: The social formation of fitness: Lifetime consequences of prenatal nutrition and postnatal care in a wild mammal population

description: Research in medicine and evolutionary biology suggests that the sequencing
 of parental investment has a crucial impact on offspring life history and
 health. Here we take advantage of the synchronous birth system of wild
 banded mongooses to test experimentally the lifetime consequences to
 offspring of receiving extra investment prenatally versus postnatally. We
 provided extra food to half of the breeding females in each group during
 pregnancy, leaving the other half as matched controls. This manipulation
 resulted in two categories of experimental offspring in synchronously born
 litters: (1) ‘prenatal boost’ offspring whose mothers had been fed during
 pregnancy; and (2) ‘postnatal boost’ offspring whose mothers were not fed
 during pregnancy but who received extra alloparental care in the postnatal
 period. Prenatal boost offpsring lived substantially longer as adults, but
 postnatal boost offspring had higher lifetime reproductive success (LRS)
 and higher glucocorticoid levels across the lifespan. Both types of
 experimental offspring had higher LRS than offspring from unmanipulated
 litters. We found no difference between the two experimental categories of
 offspring in adult weight, age at first reproduction, oxidative stress, or
 telomere lengths. These findings are rare experimental evidence that
 prenatal and postnatal investments have distinct effects in moulding
 individual life history and fitness in wild mammals.
description: Here we report a long running field experiment in a wild
 cooperative mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), which we use to
 test the lifetime physiological and life history consequences of varying
 investment received by offspring in prenatal versus postnatal periods of
 development.<br><br>Data was collected as part of the long
 term field study of Banded Mongoose Research Project, at the field site in
 Mweya, Uganda, from wild banded mongooses in the study area that are
 observed in the field and regularly trapped for collection of biological
 samples. We followed two categories of offspring born in an experimental
 design where half of the pregnant mongoose females were supplementary fed
 during gestation. We measured offspring weight, longevity and reproductive
 success as well as physiological measures: oxidative stress, telomere
 length and fecal glucocorticoids. Data were combined to the long term data
 consisting of field observations, on individual life span, helping
 behaviour and breeding success.
description: # Data from: The social formation of fitness: Lifetime consequences of
 prenatal nutrition and postnatal care in a wild mammal population
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 \paperw11900\paperh16840\margl1440\margr1440\vieww24380\viewh15420\viewkind0 \deftab720 \pard\pardeftab720\partightenfactor0 \f0\fs24 \cf2 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0 \outl0\strokewidth0 \strokec2 # \f1\b\fs48 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0 \outl0\strokewidth0 The social formation of fitness: lifetime consequences of prenatal nutrition and postnatal care in a wild mammal population \f2\b0\fs29\fsmilli14667 \f0\fs24 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0 \outl0\strokewidth0 This data is published alongside Vitikainen, Meniri et al. 2023 Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B paper (currently in review). Data contains information on proxies of fitness and physiological markers from a wild population of banded mongooses, from the long term study site of the Banded Mongoose Research Project located in Mweya, Uganda. Offspring from a previously described feeding experiment (see Marshall et al. 2021 Nature Communications [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23910-6](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23910-6)) were followed for quantifying effects of maternal supplementary feeding during pregnancy. As described in Marshall et al., individuals whose mothers had been fed (PREnatal boost offspring, treatment group) were born heavier, whereas individuals whose mothers had not been fed received more care during growth (termed POSTnatal boost offspring). Both treatment groups showed effects. PRE-boost offspring lived longer, whereas POST-boost offspring produced more offspring; there was no difference in adult size, meaning that POST-boost offspring caught up with the PREboost offspring. There were no differences between treatment groups in any of the markers of oxidative stress, nor in telomere length, but POST-boost offspring had higher fecal glucocorticoid levels across the lifespan. ## Description of the data and file structure Analysis files are provided as separate sheets in an excel file. Sheets are named and numbered according to the list of analyses conducted below. Sheet '93READ THIS - ANALYSIS DESCRIPTION'94 provides the analysis desrciptions and the models used for each analysis. Datasheet VARIABLES LIST provides list and descriptions of the variables in each sheet. Please also see the Electronic Supplementary Material that is published alongside this article. Analyses are as follows: 1a. weight at sexual maturity, at 1 years of age. Comparison of experimental groups 1b.weight at sexual maturity, at 1 years of age. Comparison of litter types, experimental or control 2a. Age at first estrus behaviour (days). Comparison of experimental groups 2b. Age at first estrus behaviour (days). Comparison of litter types, exp or control 3a. Age at first reproduction (days). Comparison of experimental groups 3b. Age at first reproduction (days). Comparison of litter types 4a. Lifetime reproductive success. Comparison of experimental groups 4b. Lifetime reproductive success. Comparison of litter types, experimental or control 5 Telomere length at first sampling, median age is 38 days. Comparison of experimental groups 6a. Telomere length across lifespan. Comparison of experimental groups 6b. Telomere length across lifespan. Comparison of litter types 7\. Cortisol (fecal glucocorticoids) at first sampling point, comparison of experimental groups 8a. Cortisol (fecal glucocorticoids) across lifespan. Comparison of experimental groups 8b. Cortisol (fecal glucocorticoids) across lifespan. Comparison of litter types 9a. PC, comparison of experimental groups 9b. PC, comparison of litter types 10a. GSH, comparison of experimental groups 10b. GSH, comparison of litter types 11a. SOD, comparison of experimental groups 11b. SOD, comparison of litter types 12a. MDA, comparison of experimental groups 12b. MDA, comparison of litter types 13\. Adult survival, experimental groups vs unmanipulated litters and variables as follows: category Experimental treatment category where C = control (postnatal boost) and T= treatment (fed mother, prenatal boost), LC litter control i.e. Individual born in an unmanipulated control litter date.processed_mda Date of sample processing for analysis of mda birth.litter Litter code for the communal litter that an individual was born into treatment     Experimental treatment group of litter, either some females received supplementary feeding during gestation or not weight.emerge or em.weight    individual weight at emergence from den, at around 4 weeks of age (grams) emwt emergence weight, standardised age.at.capture age at which individual was captured survival    whether (1) or not (0) individual survived until the end of the analysis period age.at.death Individual age at death cort_ng fecal glucocorticoids, ng per gram of faeces esc_index escorting index; the proportion of focal watch sessions that the pup was observed to have been escorted by an adult estrus.age age at first observed estrus-related behaviour (days) gl glutathione indiv individual identity code litter code of the communal litter that an individual was born into littertype category, experimental or unmanipulated litter (control) log.gsh glutathione, natural logarithm lrs Lifetime reproductive success mda malondialdehyde mother maternal identity code of the individual obs.time observation time, to be used as an offset in analysis of reproductive success. pack social group code of the individual pc protein carbonyls plate in analyses of telomere legth, the code of the 96-well plate used for the qPCR reaction. repage age in days, when the first offspring that was assigned to the individual in question was born sex male or female sod superoxide dismutase TL telomere length, measured using qPCR tlage, cortage age (days) of individual at physiological sampling (faecal gc's or telomere length) wt1y weight at one year of age, at sexual maturity (measured in grams) y.age individual age in years ## Code/Software Data were analysed using R, with libraries lme4 and Lmertest, models as described in the excel sheet. Dataset is provided as an MS exel file which can also be opened with Open Office.