scholarly journals Social structure as a strategy to mitigate the costs of group living: a comparison of gelada and guereza monkeys

2018 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.I.M. Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Group Living

scholarly journals Social structure and Escherichia coli sharing in a group-living wild primate, Verreaux’s sifaka

BMC Ecology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Springer ◽  
Alexander Mellmann ◽  
Claudia Fichtel ◽  
Peter M. Kappeler
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Group Living

scholarly journals Unreciprocated allogrooming hierarchies in a population of wild group-living mammals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E Nadin ◽  
David W. Macdonald ◽  
Sandra Baker ◽  
Christina D. Buesching ◽  
Stephen Ellwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Meles Meles ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
European Badgers ◽  
Wild Group

Allogrooming can relate to social status in mammalian societies, and thus, be used to infer social structure. This relationship has previously been investigated by examining an individual’s dominance rank and their total amount of allogrooming. This, however, does not account for the identity of allogrooming partners. We applied a novel approach, calculating the linearity and steepness of unreciprocated allogrooming hierarchies using actor–receiver matrices in European badgers (Meles meles) groups. Badgers have relatively unstructured social groups compared to most group-living carnivores and allogrooming in badgers is currently hypothesized to have a hygiene function. We examine whether allogrooming is linked to social status by investigating: 1) the presence, linearity, and steepness of unreciprocated allogrooming hierarchies; 2) the trading of unreciprocated allogrooming for the potential benefit of receiving reduced aggression from dominant individuals; and, 3) whether unreciprocated allogrooming is associated with relatedness. We found weak unreciprocated allogrooming hierarchies, with marginal linearity, steepness overall, and variation between social-group-years. Unreciprocated allogrooming was positively correlated with directed aggression, potentially providing evidence for the trading of allogrooming for reduced aggression. Allogrooming was not correlated with relatedness, possibly due to high relatedness within social groups. Our findings reaffirm that European badgers have a relatively unstructured social system; likely reflecting a relatively simple state of sociality in Carnivores, with little need for hierarchical order. Using actor–receiver unreciprocated allogrooming matrices to test for linearity and steepness of unreciprocated allogrooming hierarchies in other social species will improve knowledge of group social structure.

scholarly journals Role of sociality in the response of killer whales to an additive mortality event

2019 ◽  
pp. 201817174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Busson ◽  
Matthieu Authier ◽  
Christophe Barbraud ◽  
Paul Tixier ◽  
Ryan R. Reisinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Mortality Event ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Fishing Vessels ◽  
Additive Mortality

In highly social top predators, group living is an ecological strategy that enhances individual fitness, primarily through increased foraging success. Additive mortality events across multiple social groups in populations may affect the social structure, and therefore the fitness, of surviving individuals. This hypothesis was examined in a killer whale (Orcinus orca) population that experienced a 7-y period of severe additive mortality due to lethal interactions with illegal fishing vessels. Using both social and demographic analyses conducted on a unique long-term dataset encompassing periods before, during, and after this event, results indicated a decrease in both the number and the mean strength of associations of surviving individuals during the additive mortality period. A positive significant correlation between association strength and apparent survival suggested that the fitness of surviving individuals was impacted by the additive mortality event. After this event, individuals responded to the loss of relatives in their social groups by associating with a greater number of other social groups, likely to maintain a functional group size that maximized their foraging success. However, these associations were loose; individuals did not reassociate in highly stable social groups, and their survival remained low years after the mortality event. These findings demonstrate how the disruption of social structure in killer whales may lead to prolonged negative effects of demographic stress beyond an additive mortality event. More importantly, this study shows that sociality has a key role in the resilience of populations to human-induced mortality; this has major implications for the conservation of highly social and long-lived species.

scholarly journals Social structure contains epidemics and regulates individual roles in disease transmission in a group-living mammal

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (23) ◽  
pp. 12044-12055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly Rozins ◽  
Matthew J. Silk ◽  
Darren P. Croft ◽  
Richard J. Delahay ◽  
Dave J. Hodgson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Group Living

Habitat use by western black widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus) in coastal British Columbia: evidence of facultative group living

2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxence Salomon ◽  
Samantha Vibert ◽  
Robert G. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Black Widow ◽  
Latrodectus Hesperus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Coastal British Columbia

Animal social systems come in a wide range of forms characterized by different types of group-living relationships. Species that express facultative group-living behaviours, where individuals only associate under certain conditions or at certain times, are especially interesting for studying social evolution. We investigated the social structure of the western black widow spider ( Latrodectus hesperus Chamberlin and Ivie, 1935) over 5 years in a coastal British Columbia habitat, and present the first comprehensive evidence of facultative group living in the genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805. Latrodectus hesperus have a flexible social structure that varies seasonally, wherein individuals (mostly females) either form groups or live solitarily. In the fall and early winter, females spontaneously form groups of 2–8 individuals, but live alone during the oviposition season in the spring and summer. When living in groups spiders share large webs and are tolerant of each other, although they appear to forage individually. We also report on the relationships between different ecological factors and the social structure of L. hesperus, including the interaction of these spiders with two co-occurring species of introduced spiders ( Tegenaria agrestis (Walckenaer, 1802) and Tegenaria duellica Simon, 1875). Our findings suggest that L. hesperus is a good model system with which to explore the mechanisms involved in the evolution of sociality.

scholarly journals Contact patterns reveal a stable dynamic community structure with fission-fusion dynamics in wild house mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas I. Liechti ◽  
Qian B. ◽  
Barbara König ◽  
Sebastian Bonhoeffer
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Group Living ◽  
House Mice ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Contact Patterns ◽  
Contact Behaviour ◽  
Dynamic Community Detection ◽  
Individual Contact ◽  
Dynamic Community

AbstractLiving in groups is a widely adopted strategy in gregarious species. For group-living individuals it is crucial to be capable to integrate into a social structure. While there is an intuitive understanding that the concept of a group arises through some form of cohesion between its members, the exact definition of what constitutes a group and thus tasks like the detection of the dynamics of a group over time is a challenge. One way of measuring cohesion is through direct interactions between individuals. However, there is increasing evidence that associations between individuals can be mediated by others, and thus, that the drivers for group cohesion extend beyond direct individual interactions. We use dynamic community detection, allowing to relate individuals beyond direct contacts, both structurally and temporally, to study the social structure in a long-term study of a population of free-ranging house mice in a barn in Switzerland. During the 2-year study period, mice had unlimited access to food, and population density increased by 50%. Despite strong fluctuations in individual contact behaviour, population demography and structure embed into long-lived dynamic communities that are characterised by spatial fidelity, persist over several seasons and reproduction cycles, and considerably extend the life-span of single individuals. Within these multi-male and multi-female communities, seasonal changes strongly affect their structure, leading to fission-fusion like dynamics. We identify female-female interactions as the main driver for the longevity of these communities, a finding that contrasts with prior reports of the importance of a dominant male for the stability of a group. Moreover, males have a drastically shorter presence time in the study population and more often move between communities than females. Nevertheless, interacting with other breeding males in stable communities increases the duration of male presence and thus, potentially, reproductive success. Our analysis of contact patterns in a rodent that uses shelters to rest, hide and rear offspring emphasises the importance of female-bonded communities in the structuring of the population.

A Social Anthropologist Considers Social Structure

1957 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 297-298
Author(s):  
HOWARD BAUMGARTEL
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Anthropologist

Dialogue (Re)Constructs Social Structure

1993 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-537
Author(s):  
Frank E. Millar
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure
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