Collective decision making in Tibetan macaques: how followers affect the rules and speed of group movement

Rowe, Amanda K.; Li, Jinhua; Sun, Lixing; Sheeran, Lori K.; Wagner, R. Steven; Xia, Dong-Po; Uhey, Derek A.; Chen, Rui

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.10.002

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…At the time of our study, the troop consisted of 35 individuals (10 adult males, 20 adult females, 3 sub-adult males, and 2 sub-adult females), and juvenile individuals and infant monkeys were not considered [ 19 ] ( Supplementary material Table S1 ). Movement from the platform to the forest occurred several times a day, giving us the opportunity to observe collective decision-making during group movements [ 25 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tibetan Macaques with Higher Social Centrality and More Relatives Emit More Frequent Visual Communication in Collective Decision-Making

Tang

et al. 2021

Animals

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Animals on the move often communicate with each other through some specific postures. Previous studies have shown that social interaction plays a role in communication process. However, it is not clear whether the affinity of group members can affect visual communication. We studied a group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan Mountain, China, and answered whether and how social centrality or relatives matter in visual signals during group movement using Tobit regression modeling. All individuals emitted the signals of back-glances and pauses in collective movement. The emission of two signals decreased with the number of participants increased. The back-glance and pause signals emitted by the participating individuals were stronger as the position moved backward in the group. Sex, age, and rank had no significant influence on back-glance and pause signals. Individuals with higher social centrality would emit more pause signals, but social centrality had no effect on the back-glance signal. Individuals with more relatives in the group had more back-glance signals, but this had no effect on the pause signal. This study verifies that social centrality and the number of relatives have effects on visual signals in Tibetan macaques. We provide insights into the relationship between communication behaviors and group cooperation in social animals.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Focal animal sampling [ 27 ] was used to observe and collect data from 35 adult and sub-adult members in the monkey group, and the sampling time was 10 min each time. Detailed behavioral definitions are shown in Table 1 [ 10 , 19 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tibetan Macaques with Higher Social Centrality and More Relatives Emit More Frequent Visual Communication in Collective Decision-Making

Tang

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…Therefore, leadership is potentially independent from aggressive and affiliative social behaviours. Indeed, followers follow not only dominants ( Watts, 2000 ; Rowe et al, 2018 ), or kin ( Leca et al, 2003 ; Rowe et al, 2018 ) and close affiliates ( Wang et al, 2016 ), but also central group members ( Leca et al, 2003 ). The ecological setting may also determine who is leading the travel order: when food sources are monopolisable dominants lead, while leadership is distributed with non-monopolizable food sources ( King et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Three Classes Of Social Behaviour and Resource Access: Empirmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Get the Biggest Slice of the Cake. A Comparative View of Social Behaviour and Resource Access in Human Children and Nonhuman Primates

Vermande

Sterck

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Social complexity results from engaging in different classes of social behaviour. The presence of different classes of social behaviour is reflected in multidimensional concepts of social asymmetry, found in both human and nonhuman primates. Based on an overview of such concepts, we propose that three classes of social behaviour are involved in having access to scarce and desired resources: next to aggressive and affiliative behaviour, also action indicating behaviour (i.e., inspire another individual to follow one’s example or intentions) may lead to resource access. Studies with nonhuman primate and human children show that the contribution of aggression and affiliation to resource access has been widely documented and that there is initial support for action indicating behaviour. In addition, the studies show similarities and differences in conceptualization and approach that may inspire future research. Future research should address the (in)dependency of the behavioural dimensions, their relative importance, individual differences in combined expression and the type of resources accessed. Only a multi-dimensional view on behaviour leading to resource access will highlight the benefits of social complexity.

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“…To take advantage of the benefits of group cohesion, social animals have evolved behavioral mechanisms to coordinate activities during feeding, foraging, and traveling ( Petit and Bon 2010 ; Wang et al. 2015 , 2016 ; Rowe et al. 2018 ; Ravignani 2019 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant attraction: why social bridging matters for female leadership in Tibetan macaques

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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Leadership is a key issue in the study of collective behavior in social animals. Affiliation-leadership models predict that dyadic partner preferences based on grooming relationships or alliance formation positively affect an individual’s decision to follow or support a conspecific. In the case of many primate species, females without young infants are attracted to mother-infant dyads. However, the effects of mother-infant-female associations on affiliation-leadership models remain less clear. In free-ranging Tibetan macaques Macaca thibetana, we used social network analysis to examine the importance of “mother-infant-adult female” social bridging events as a predictor of who leads and who follows during group movement. Social bridging is a common behavior in Tibetan macaques and occurs when two adults, generally females, engage in coordinated infant-handling. Using eigenvector centrality coefficients of social bridging as a measure of social affiliation, we found that among lactating females, initiating bridging behavior with another female played a significant role in leadership success, with the assisting female following the mother during group movement. Among non-lactating females, this was not the case. Our results indicate that infant attraction can be a strong trigger in collective action and directing group movement in Tibetan macaques and provides benefits to mothers who require helpers and social support in order to ensure the safety of their infants. Our study provides new insights into the importance of the third party effect in rethinking affiliation-leadership models in group-living animals.

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Collective decision making in Tibetan macaques: how followers affect the rules and speed of group movement

Cited by 10 publications

References 63 publications

Tibetan Macaques with Higher Social Centrality and More Relatives Emit More Frequent Visual Communication in Collective Decision-Making

Tibetan Macaques with Higher Social Centrality and More Relatives Emit More Frequent Visual Communication in Collective Decision-Making

How to Get the Biggest Slice of the Cake. A Comparative View of Social Behaviour and Resource Access in Human Children and Nonhuman Primates

Infant attraction: why social bridging matters for female leadership in Tibetan macaques

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