A practical guide for inferring reliable dominance hierarchies and estimating their uncertainty

Sánchez‐Tójar, Alfredo; Schroeder, Julia; Farine, Dan

doi:10.1101/111146

Cited by 33 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Data on conflicts were recorded during continuous and ad libitum sampling for the same half-year period as the dyadic relationship measures. On average, we included in our analysis of dominance rank 13.7 and 16.3 interactions per individual in the two study periods respectively, which exceeds the value of 10 proposed for steep hierarchies (Sánchez-Tójar, Schroeder, & Farine, 2018). A winner/loser matrix of these interactions was used to calculate the standardized normalized David’s score (nDS) using DomiCalc (“compete” R-package; Schmid & de Vries, 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Ebenau

Borell

Penke

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

23Animal social bonds are defined as stable, equitable and strong affiliative and cooperative 24 relationships similar to human friendships. Just as human friendships, social bonds are 25 thought to function as alliances that generate adaptive benefits via support in critical 26 situations. In humans, similarity in many sociodemographic, behavioural and intrapersonal 27 characteristics leads to trust and is predictive of friendships. Specifically, personality 28 homophily, that is the tendency of individuals to form social bonds with others who have a 29 similar personality, may increase predictability and facilitate trust and reciprocity among 30 partners with compatible behavioural tendencies. While evidence for social bonding in 31 nonhumans is accumulating, far less is known about its predictors. Here, personality 32 homophily effects on the formation and maintenance of social bonds are shown in twenty-four 33 wild male Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), at Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, 34 Thailand. Dyadic bond strength increased with increased similarity in the trait Connectedness 35 (i.e. frequent and diverse neighbours in 5m proximity and pronounced social tolerance, as 36 high rates of friendly approaches to and by others). To differentiate whether homophily 37 indeed predicted bond formation or whether bonded males' personalities became more similar 38 over time, we tested the stability of the connectedness traits in a subset of immigrating males 39 that had to form new bonds. Connectedness in these males remained stable suggesting that 40 males do not adapt their personality to their partner. Our results support the idea of a shared 41 evolutionary origin of homophily as a partner choice strategy in human and non-human 42 animals. The main selective advantage of personality similarity in animal social bonds may 43 result from a more reliable cooperation among individuals with similar cooperative 44 behavioural tendencies.45

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Ebenau

Borell

Penke

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…All simulations were conducted in R version 3.3.3 (R Core Development Team 2017). We used the R package “animDom” version 0.1.2 to infer dominance hierarchies using the randomized Elo-rating method (Sánchez-Tójar et al 2017). The R package ‘statnet’ was used to test triangle transitivity measures (Handcock et al 2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An average sampling effort ranging from 10-20 interactions is sufficient to infer hierarchies in empirical networks (McDonald and Shizuka 2013). Furthermore, we compared the proportion of observed dyads to the expected proportion of dyads with the probability of interactions of equal group size following a Poisson distribution (Sánchez-Tójar et al 2017). We estimated the dominance hierarchy using the random Elo-rating method in order to track ranking dynamics over time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We converted the observation data and randomized the order in which sequences of interactions occurred (n = 1000) such that different individual Elo-ratings were calculated each time to obtain mean rankings (Neumann et al 2011; Strandburg-Peshkin et al 2015). We estimated uncertainty in the hierarchy by splitting our dataset into two halves and estimated whether the hierarchy in one half of the matrix correlated with the hierarchy of the other half in the matrix (Sánchez-Tójar et al 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This present study aims to develop dominance hierarchies for twig-nesting ants living in hollow twigs in a Mexican coffee agricultural ecosystems due to competition for nest resources. We adopt methods from network analysis to infer dominance hierarchies from competitive interactions by estimating uncertainties and steepness in rankings (Pinter-Wollman et al 2014; Shizuka and McDonald 2015; Sánchez-Tójar et al 2017). Furthermore, by viewing twig-nesting ants as a network we estimate the orderliness of the hierarchy within the community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Tropical arboreal ants form dominance hierarchies over nesting resources in agroecosystems

Yibarek

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interspecific dominance hierarchies have been widely reported across animal systems. While some dominant individuals (winners) get to monopolize resources, during dyadic interactions, they can increase their relative fitness as compared to subdominant individuals (losers). In some ant species, dominance hierarchies have been used to explain species coexistence and community structure. However, it remains unclear whether or in what contexts dominance hierarchies occur in tropical ant communities. Furthermore, it can be challenging to infer and quantify reliable dominance hierarchies from observed interactions. This study seeks to examine whether arboreal twig-nesting ants competing for nesting resources in a Mexican coffee agricultural ecosystem are arranged in a dominance hierarchy. Using network analysis, we quantified interactions between ten species by measuring the uncertainty and steepness in the dominance hierarchy. We also assessed the orderliness of the hierarchy by considering species interactions at the network level. Based on the Elo-ranking method, we found that the twig-nesting ant species Myrmelachista mexicana ranked highest in the ranking, while Pseudomyrmex ejectus was ranked as the lowest in the hierarchy. We quantified the uncertainty in the dominance hierarchy and found that the hierarchy was intermediate in its steepness, suggesting that the probability of higher ranked individuals winning contests against lower ranked individuals was fairly high. Motif analysis and significant excess of triads further revealed that the species networks were largely transitive. This study highlights that some tropical arboreal ant communities self-organize into dominance hierarchies.

show abstract

Inter‐group aggressive interaction patterns indicate male mate defense and female cooperation across bonobo groups at Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Tokuyama

Sakamaki

Furuichi

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: Although conflicts between groups over valuable resources are common in the animal kingdom, an individual's strategy toward out-group individuals may differ according to the benefits and costs received from inter-group interactions. Groups of bonobos encounter each other frequently and may mingle and range together from a few hours to a few days. During these inter-group associations, individuals across groups exhibit both aggressive and affiliative interactions. This study aimed to examine the strategies that bonobos employ with other groups, by comparing the patterns of within-and inter-group aggression. Materials and methods:We observed the aggressive interactions within a group of wild bonobos and between the group and three neighboring groups in Wamba, Luo Scientific Reserve, DR Congo.Results: Bonobos increased the level of cooperation to attack out-group individuals more than they do to attack within-group individuals. Additionally, they reduced the aggression between within-group members during inter-group associations, compared to that when not associated with other groups. Males selectively and cooperatively attacked out-group males. Inter-group aggression among females was rare. Furthermore, females sometimes formed coalitions with out-group individuals to attack a common target. Discussion: Our results support the hypothesis that inter-group competition occurs in bonobos, with males across groups competing over mates. Females across groups were tolerant and even cooperative with each other. Regardless of the ideal male strategy, female tolerant and cooperative relationships across groups and female within-group superiority over males could preserve tolerant inter-group relationships in bonobos. K E Y W O R D S agonistic interactions, cooperation, inter-group relationships, multigroup association, Pan paniscus

show abstract

A practical guide for inferring reliable dominance hierarchies and estimating their uncertainty

Cited by 33 publications

References 50 publications

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Tropical arboreal ants form dominance hierarchies over nesting resources in agroecosystems

Inter‐group aggressive interaction patterns indicate male mate defense and female cooperation across bonobo groups at Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About