Infectious diseases and social distancing in nature

Stockmaier, Sebastian; Stroeymeyt, Nathalie; Shattuck, Eric C; Hawley, Dana M.; Meyers, Lauren Ancel; Bolnick, Daniel I.

doi:10.1126/science.abc8881

Cited by 140 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…SNA comprises a series of flexible tools that allow robust quantitative analyses to be conducted on social groups, considering them networks of nodes connected by social ties (Croft et al, 2008;Farine and Whitehead, 2015). The main aim of SNA is to analyze relevant behavioral features such as the social structure of populations (Papageorgiou et al, 2019), the individual behavioral variability (Mourier et al, 2019), the mating behavior (McDonald et al, 2013), and the transmission of information and disease (Couzin and Krause, 2003;Martínez-López et al, 2009;Stockmaier et al, 2021). Characterizing the causes that lead to the organization of animal societies provides a reference point to study social evolution in many different taxa (Grueter et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Throughput Tracking of Social Networks in Marine Fish Populations

et al. 2021

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Despite their potential to generate high-quality positioning data, the use of high-resolution acoustic telemetry systems (HRATS) has been neglected in coastal marine areas due to the limitations that these environments pose to the transmission of acoustic signals. In this work, we applied a HRATS and social network analysis (SNA) to study the social interactions of the pearly razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula), a small coastal wrasse, in a Mediterranean marine reserve. Our analysis was based on proximity measures estimated from high-resolution trajectories from 232 individuals tracked during 55 days within a marine protected area. Associations were defined as the proportion of 5-min intervals in which two individuals were observed within 1 m from each other, and social networks were generated for the overall tracking period and for each particular day. The obtained network parameters were contrasted against 1,000 null association models obtained by randomly redistributing individual trajectories within the study area. The obtained networks showed a harem-like social structure, with agonistic behavior between males and larger association indices between individuals of different sex. Occasionally, sporadic associations of large groups of females were observed conducting excursions along the study area. By providing a comprehensive view of the organizational structure of the pearly razorfish, our study demonstrates the potential of HRATS to efficiently produce high-throughput tracking data from large numbers of individuals and of proper null social model formulation to reconstruct the social networks in wild-living marine fish populations. The combination of HRATS and SNA represents a powerful tool to study key ecological processes regarding the social interactions of individuals, including social dynamics, collective movements, and the response to environmental perturbations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Throughput Tracking of Social Networks in Marine Fish Populations

et al. 2021

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“…In a group where all members may be needed for defense against predators, such as in mongoose, considerable time may be invested in caring for a sick one. A wide range of possibilities for social distancing in many different species have been reported ( Stockmaier et al, 2021 ). These different, species-specific reactions related to sickness behavior are not evident in the detailed studies on humans – a single species though very diverse in culture and habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does the Social Grouping of Animals in Nature Protect Against Sickness? A Perspective

Hart

2021

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Sickness behavior is broadly represented in vertebrates, usually in association with the fever response in response to acute infections. The reactions to sickness behavior in a group member or potential group member in humans is quite variable, depending upon circumstances. In animals, the reactions to sickness behavior in a group member or potential group member evoke a specific response that reflects the species-specific lifestyle. Groups of animals can employ varied strategies to reduce or address exposure to sickness. Most of these have scarcely been studied in nature from a disease perspective: (1) adjusting exposure to sick conspecifics or contaminated areas; (2) caring for a sick group member; (3) peripheralization and agonistic behaviors to strange non-group conspecifics; and (4) using special strategies at parturition when newborn are healthy but vulnerable. Unexplored in this regard is infanticide, where newborn that are born with very little immunity until they receive antibody-rich colostrum, could be a target of maternal infanticide if they manifest signs of sickness and could be infectious to littermates. The strategies used by different species are highly specific and dependent upon the particular circumstances. What is needed is a more general awareness and consideration of the possibilities that avoiding or adapting to sickness behavior may be driving some social behaviors of animals in nature.

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“…Some mammal (Grueter et al 2020) and birds (Papageorgiou et al 2019) also exhibit multiple levels of social connections – named multilevel societies – with social contacts being expressed within and across social units. Further, it is now becoming well-established that individuals can change their social behaviours once they become infected (reviewed in Romano et al 2020; Stockmaier et al 2021), which can introduce a more rapid feedback between disease state and social behaviour. Thus, future research should aim to determine how specific social strategies might evolve under different environmental conditions (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Information use Shapes the Coevolution of Sociality and Virulence

Ashby

Farine

2020

Preprint

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Social contacts can facilitate the spread of both survival-related information and infectious disease, but little is known about how these processes combine to shape host and parasite evolution. Here, we use a theoretical model that captures both transmission processes to investigate how host sociality and parasite virulence (co)evolve. We show how selection for sociality (and in turn, virulence) depends on both the intrinsic costs and benefits of information and disease as well as their relative prevalence in the population. Specifically, greater sociality and lower virulence evolve when the risk of infection is either low or high and information is neither very common nor too rare. Lower sociality and higher virulence evolve when the prevalence patterns are reversed. When disease and information are both at moderate levels, the direction of selection depends on the relative costs and benefits of being infected or informed. We also show that sociality varies inversely with virulence, and that disease may be unable to constrain the evolution of sociality. Together, these findings provide new insights for our understanding of group living and how apparently opposing ecological processes can influence the evolution of sociality and virulence in a range of ways.

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Infectious diseases and social distancing in nature

Cited by 140 publications

References 91 publications

High-Throughput Tracking of Social Networks in Marine Fish Populations

High-Throughput Tracking of Social Networks in Marine Fish Populations

How Does the Social Grouping of Animals in Nature Protect Against Sickness? A Perspective

Social Information use Shapes the Coevolution of Sociality and Virulence

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