Abstract
It is widely acknowledged that population structure can have a
substantial impact on evolutionary trajectories. In social animals, this
structure is strongly influenced by relationships among the population
members, so studies of differences in social structure between diverging
populations or nascent species are of prime interest. Ideal models for
such a study are two house mouse subspecies, Mus musculus
musculus and M. m. domesticus, meeting in Europe along a
secondary contact zone. Though the latter subspecies has usually been
supposed to form tighter and more isolated social units than the former,
the evidence is still inconclusive. Here, we carried out a series of
radio-frequency identification experiments in semi-natural enclosures to
gather large longitudinal datasets on individual mouse movements. The
data were summarised in the form of uni- and multi-layer social
networks. Within them, we could delimit and describe the social units
(‘modules’). While the number of estimated units was similar in both
subspecies, domesticus revealed a more ‘modular’ structure. This
subspecies also showed more intramodular social interactions, higher
spatial module separation, higher intramodular persistence of
parent-offspring contacts, and lower multiple paternity, suggesting more
effective control of dominant males over reproduction. We also
demonstrate that long-lasting modules can be identified with basic
reproductive units or demes. We thus provide the first robust evidence
that the two subspecies differ in their social structure and dynamics of
the structure formation.