Should I stay or should I go?: assessing dispersal patterns in social mole-rats through direct and indirect methods

African mole-rats are subterranean rodents whose social structure ranges from solitary to eusocial, and body mass ranges from the 40g naked mole-rat to the almost 1000g Cape dune mole-rat. Few studies have assessed dispersal dynamics in subterranean mammals and it is unknown whether dispersal distances are constrained by living underground. Direct observations of dispersal events were collected during a 7-year study of Damaraland mole-rats as well as published sources from four other species. I used microsatellite markers to indirectly assess the genetic structure and dispersal patterns in Natal mole-rats, and compare my results with similar studies in Damaraland, common, and Cape dune mole-rats. Dispersal in mole-rats is male-biased, with males dispersing to join single females or immigrate into established groups to secure mating opportunities, while females disperse and settle alone to wait for a male to locate them. By using a phylogenetically controlled assessment of dispersal distances across published studies in rodents I found that the subterranean lifestyle does not preclude long distance dispersal. Body condition did not predict dispersal distance, however dispersal distance increases with group size and species with a greater body mass are predicted to disperse farther, with some species capable of dispersing over 2km. However, indirect methods of estimating dispersal distances may greatly underestimate the maximum dispersal distance in subterranean rodents, where observed distances were over 10 times higher than genetically estimated distances. Results from a population structure analysis indicate that landscape features may present minor barriers to dispersal.