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\outl0\strokewidth0 The social formation of fitness: lifetime consequences of prenatal nutrition and postnatal care in a wild mammal population
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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) 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.