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Dryad

Data and R code for: Linking climate variability to demography in cooperatively breeding meerkats

Data files

Apr 10, 2025 version files 6.24 MB

Abstract

This dryad repository contains data sets and R scripts for our Ecological Monographs (2025) paper: Linking climate variability to demography in cooperatively breeding meerkats. The aim of our study was to develop a mechanistic understanding of how variation in rainfall and temperature affect meerkat demography. Specifically, we:

  • Identified the critical period during which rainfall influences vegetation productivity at the field site.
  • Investigated how vegetation productivity and temperature influence meerkat foraging performance.
  • Examined how these climatic variables impact daily weight fluctuations and overall body condition.
  • Analyzed conditions under which meerkats fail to accumulate enough mass during foraging to offset overnight losses.
  • Explored the influence of body condition on reproduction and survival.
  • Projected future temperature trends and their implications for meerkat populations up to the mid and end of the century.

To achieve these aims, our study included numerous data sets and analyses which we detail in the README. 

Please note that the individual, group, and litter identities have been anonymised for this study. This is to prevent anyone from trying to link different studies carried out by the Kalahari Meerkat Project, and using the data to conduct their own analyses without knowledge of how the data have been processed, or of the system from which they derive. Within our specific study, the identities are relationally-linked, so that, for example, Individual "4" is consistent across data sets.