Hierarchical social modularity in gorillas

Morrison, Robin E.; Groenenberg, Milou; Breuer, Thomas; Manguette, Marie L.; Walsh, Peter

doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.0681

Cited by 38 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The flexible system of defending and sharing space suggested here, combined with growing evidence for long term social bonds between gorilla groups 26,53,54 and a far more dynamic social system than previously thought 46,55 , implies the presence of a complex social structure in gorillas where between-group interactions are influenced by many factors including social affiliations, kinship and the defence of space. Gorillas may therefore represent a valuable model system for investigating how elements of territoriality can occur simultaneously with affiliative between-group interactions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Morrison

Dunn

Illera³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The evolutionary origins of how modern humans share and use space are often modelled on the territorial-based violence of chimpanzees, with limited comparison to other apes. Gorillas are widely assumed to be non-territorial due to their large home ranges, extensive range overlap, and limited inter-group aggression. Using large-scale camera trapping, we monitored western gorillas in Republic of Congo across 60 km 2. Avoidance patterns between groups were consistent with an understanding of the "ownership" of specific regions, with greater avoidance of their neighbours the closer they were to their neighbours' home range centres. Groups also avoided larger groups' home ranges to a greater extent, consistent with stronger defensive responses from more dominant groups. Our results suggest that groups may show territoriality, defending core regions of their home ranges against neighbours, and mirror patterns common across human evolution, with core areas of resident dominance and larger zones of mutual tolerance. This implies western gorillas may be a key system for understanding how humans have evolved the capacity for extreme territorial-based violence and warfare, whilst also engaging in the strong affiliative inter-group relationships necessary for large-scale cooperation. Understanding how neighbours use and share space is fundamental to understanding a species' large-scale social system 1. Patterns of space use can have considerable impacts on the likelihood of neighbours encountering one another, and the location of such encounters can greatly influence the behaviour shown when they meet 2-4. One key example of this is in species showing territoriality, where rates of aggression shown to out-group individuals can differ drastically depending on the location relative to the group's territory 5-8. Territories are commonly defined as regions of a home range that are actively defended against intruders to enable exclusive use by the individual or social unit 9. However, there is considerable variation in how the term has been used in different study systems 10 and broader definitions of territoriality also include areas of priority use 1,11 , for example, through site-specific dominance 8,12. Territories can be defended using physical aggression or advertised using less costly alternatives such as scent marking, calls or displays; with a broad diversity of territorial behaviors observed both within and among species 11 , including humans 13. It has been increasingly suggested that defining territoriality as a binary trait cannot explain the full diversity of territorial behaviours observed 1,11,14-16. Territoriality may be better described by a continuum from extreme territoriality where neighbouring conspecifics impose a hard boundary on movement, to species with more flexible territory boundaries such as the black bear where territoriality can vary, geographically and temporally 11 , through to non-territorial species in which the ranges of neighbouring conspecifics do not constrain an individual or group's movem...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Morrison

Dunn

Illera³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…While social monogamy marks the first extension of the mother‐infant bond to the family unit, complex and hierarchical social organization was thought to evolve only in hominins and expand in parallel to the increase in brain size 168 . Recent research in Western gorillas discovered hierarchical social modularity, defining not only complex affiliative behavior within extended groups of kin, but also reciprocity and cooperation among non‐kin groups toward goal‐directed seasonal coalitions, in ways that mirror the social structure of a small human village 169 .…”

Section: The Three Tenets Of Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

What is resilience: an affiliative neuroscience approach

2020

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Resilience – a key topic in clinical science and practice – still lacks a clear conceptualization that integrates its evolutionary and human‐specific features, refrains from exclusive focus on fear physiology, incorporates a developmental approach, and, most importantly, is not based on the negation (i.e., absence of symptoms following trauma). Building on the initial condition of mammals, whose brain matures in the context of the mother's body and caregiving behavior, we argue that systems and processes that participate in tuning the brain to the social ecology and adapting to its hardships mark the construct of resilience. These include the oxytocin system, the affiliative brain, and biobehavioral synchrony, all characterized by great flexibility across phylogenesis and ontogenesis. Three core features of resilience are outlined: plasticity, sociality and meaning. Mechanisms of sociality by which coordinated action supports diversity, endurance and adaptation are described across animal evolution. Humans' biobehavioral synchrony matures from maternal attuned behavior in the postpartum to adult‐adult relationships of empathy, perspective‐taking and intimacy, and extends from the mother‐child relationship to other affiliative bonds throughout life, charting a fundamental trajectory in the development of resilience. Findings from three high‐risk cohorts, each tapping a distinct disruption to maternal‐infant bonding (prematurity, maternal depression, and early life stress/trauma), and followed from birth to adolescence/young adulthood, demonstrate how components of the neurobiology of affiliation confer resilience and uniquely shape the social brain.

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“…In other animal societies, preferential relationships between groups have been proposed to provide a variety of benefits through either kin selection or reciprocal altruism such as the defence of females (Xiang et al., 2014), increased foraging efficiency (Morrison et al., 2019), knowledge transfer (de Silva & Wittemyer, 2012; Wittemyer et al., 2005) and predation avoidance (Matsuda et al., 2010; Whitehead et al., 2012). However, the potential benefits of these relationships for improving access to neighbouring home ranges have not been studied in these societies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The genus Gorilla is one such example in which relationships between groups form a key part of the overall social structure (Forcina et al, 2019;Mirville et al, 2018aMirville et al, , 2018bMorrison et al, 2019). Gorilla groups' large home ranges (up to 24 km 2 ) often overlap with those of their neighbours (Bermejo, 2004;Caillaud et al, 2014;Head et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%