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Climate change has marked effects on global weather patterns and oceanic systems, impacting animal behaviour and fitness in potentially profound ways. Despite this, we lack detailed information about species’ responses to climatic variation. Using an 11-year tracking dataset of over 300 individual birds, we explore the consequences of variation in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) for individual behaviour and fitness in wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans breeding in the Southern Indian Ocean. Our results reveal distinct responses between males and females to climatic variation that align with the impacts of each climatic index on the distinct foraging ranges of each sex. In positive SAM phases, linked to poorer foraging conditions in female ranges and better conditions in male ranges, females exhibited behaviour consistent with reduced foraging success: that is, fewer prey capture attempts, and more movement between feeding patches. Males, on the other hand, showed no behavioural change. During positive SOI phases, associated with good foraging conditions in both male and female foraging ranges, both sexes showed evidence of more successful foraging, with birds engaging in more search behaviour, and taking shorter trips with fewer prey capture attempts, together indicating increased food intake per unit time. We found limited evidence for a role of individual variation, as measured through differences in personality, suggesting that plastic responses to climate are sufficiently important so as to obscure inter-individual variation. Supporting this was the finding that individual breeding success was unaffected by climatic variation, suggesting that plastic foraging behaviour allows albatrosses to mitigate climate impacts and maintain reproductive output. 

Some social animals are highly cooperative creatures that live in tight-knit colonies. Bees and ants are perhaps the most well-known examples of social insects, while Damaraland mole-rats and naked mole-rats, two rodent species found in southern and eastern Africa, are among the most cooperative mammal species. In these colony-forming animals, only one or a few females reproduce and these fertile females are frequently referred to as “queens”. When an animal becomes a queen, her body shape can change dramatically to support the demands of high fertility and frequent reproduction. The molecular basis of such changes has been well-described in social insects. However, they are poorly understood in mammals. To address this knowledge gap, Johnston et al. studied how transitioning to queen status affects bone growth and structural integrity in Damaraland mole-rats, as well as body shape and size. The experiments compared non-breeding female mole-rats with other adult females recently paired with a male to become the sole breeder of a new colony. Johnston et al. also used bone-derived cells grown in the laboratory to assess underlying gene regulatory changes in new queen mole-rats. Johnston et al. showed that transitioning to the role of queen leads to a cascade of skeletal changes accompanied by shifts in the regulation of genetic pathways linked to bone growth. Queen mole-rats show accelerated growth in the spinal column of their lower back. These bones are called lumbar vertebrae and this likely allows them to have larger litters. However, queen mole-rats also lose bone growth potential in their leg bones and develop thinner thigh bones, which may increase the risk of bone fracture. Therefore, unlike highly social insects, mole-rats do not seem to have escaped the physical costs of intensive reproduction. This work adds to our understanding of the genes and physical traits that have evolved to support cooperative behaviour in social animals, including differences between insects and mammals. It also shows, with a striking example, how an animal’s genome responds to social cues to produce a diverse range of traits that reflect their designated social role.