Investigating the Relationship Between Sociality and Reproductive Success in Wild Female Crested Macaques, Macaca nigra

Duboscq, Julie; Micheletta, Jérôme; Perwitasari-Farajallah, Dyah; Engelhardt, Antje; Neumann, Christof

doi:10.1007/s10764-023-00376-5

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Several papers have called for a re-examination of the costs and benefits of grooming [34,84,85], particularly giving grooming [63,86]. Giving grooming can be costly, as it can reduce vigilance [87][88][89] or carry energetic (picking through fur is laborious and may require cognitive resources [34,90]) or opportunity costs (grooming inevitably detracts time from other activities [91,92]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More allogrooming is followed by higher physiological stress in wild female baboons

Christensen,

Bracken,

O'Riain

et al. 2024

Biol. Lett.

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Social bonds increase fitness in a range of mammals. One pathway by which social bonds may increase fitness is by reducing the exposure to physiological stress, i.e. glucocorticoid (GC) hormones, that can be detrimental to health and survival. This is achieved through downregulating hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)-axis activity. Indeed, long-term measures of social (grooming) bonds are often negatively correlated with HPA-axis activity. However, the proximate role of physical touch through allogrooming remains an open question in the sociality–health–fitness debate. Demonstrating the potential anxiolytic benefits of grooming in the wild is hindered by methodological limitations. Here, we match accelerometer-identified grooming in wild female chacma baboons ( Papio ursinus ) to non-invasive faecal GC metabolite concentrations (fGCs). Consistent with previous work, we found a negative (but statistically non-significant) overall relationship between individual averaged fGCs and grooming rates. However, when time-matching grooming to fGCs, we found that both more giving and receiving grooming were followed by higher fGCs. This upregulation of HPA-axis activity suggests that maintaining social bonds (and its ultimate fitness benefits) may come at a shorter-term physiological cost. This finding sheds new light on a ubiquitous social behaviour typically considered ‘relaxing’ and suggests that sociopositive contact can trigger physiological stress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More allogrooming is followed by higher physiological stress in wild female baboons

Christensen,

Bracken,

O'Riain

et al. 2024

Biol. Lett.

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“…Numerous studies have shown positive associations between fitness and various aspects of affiliative relationships, for example cumulative relationship strength (empirical examples: Cameron et al, 2009;Frère et al, 2010;Silk et al, 2010;reviews: Ostner & Schülke, 2018;Snyder-Mackler et al, 2020). However, other studies failed to find evidence for or even reported negative associations between sociality-and fitness-related measures (Dal Pesco et al, 2022;Duboscq et al, 2023;Menz et al, 2020;Thompson & Cords, 2018;Wey & Blumstein, 2012). Dyadic relationships are also crucial in models of pathogen and knowledge transmission (e.g., Drewe & Perkins, 2015;Nightingale et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

(De)composing sociality: disentangling individual-specific from dyad-specific propensities to interact

Neumann,

Fischer

2023

Preprint

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In socially living animals, relationships between group members are typically highly differentiated. Some dyads maintain strong and long-lasting relationships, while others are only connected by weak ties. There is growing evidence that the number and strength of social bonds are related to reproductive success and survival. Yet, few of these analyses have considered that frequent or prolonged affiliative interactions between two individuals are driven by two different processes: namely, the overall gregariousness of the individuals involved and their dyadic affinity, i.e., the preference the members of the dyad have to interact specifically with one another. Crucially, these two axes of sociality cannot be observed directly, although distinguishing them is essential for many research questions, for example, when estimating kin bias or when studying the link between sociality and fitness. We present a principled statistical framework to estimate the two underlying sociality axes using dyadic interaction data. We provide the R packagebamoso, which builds on Stan code to implement models based on the proposed framework and allows visual and numerical evaluation of the estimated sociality axes. We demonstrate the application and some of the critical advantages of our proposed modeling framework with simulated and empirical data: (1) the possibility of checking model fit against observed data, (2) the assessment of uncertainty in the estimated sociality parameters, and (3) the possibility to extend it to more complex models that use interaction data to estimate the relationship between individual-level sociality and individual-level outcomes in a unified model. Our model will help to understand how and why individuals interact with each other and will help address questions about the relationship between variation in sociality and other features of interest, both within and across species.

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Macaca nigra in the Spotlight: Accounting for Diversity in Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation in Primates

Duboscq

Micheletta

2023

Int J Primatol

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Investigating the Relationship Between Sociality and Reproductive Success in Wild Female Crested Macaques, Macaca nigra

Cited by 4 publications

References 66 publications

More allogrooming is followed by higher physiological stress in wild female baboons

More allogrooming is followed by higher physiological stress in wild female baboons

(De)composing sociality: disentangling individual-specific from dyad-specific propensities to interact

Macaca nigra in the Spotlight: Accounting for Diversity in Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation in Primates

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