Personality homophily drives female friendships in a feral ungulate

Abstract

Friendships, exhibited by both humans and non-human animals, have considerable adaptive benefits. In humans, similarity or homophily in personality is considered a proximate mechanism driving friendships, yet little is known about the behavioural ‘decision rules’ underlying animal friendships. Some empirical research suggests that animal friendships can be driven by personality homophily. However, these studies are restricted to non-human primates, limiting our understanding of the mechanisms of friendships. We investigated a feral population of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) to determine whether homophily in personality drives friendships in this ‘non-model’ social species in free-ranging environmental conditions. We conducted observations on females (n=30), and assessed their friendships and personalities. Close spatial proximity served as a behavioural indicator of friendship, validated by affiliative body contact. An objective ‘bottom-up’ method revealed three personality traits –social tension,vigilance, andgeneral dominance. We found that females with comparatively lower personality differences in social tension and general dominance traits exhibited significantly higher close spatial associations. Our findings show that friendships in buffalo can form based on personality homophily, a decision rule attributed predominantly to primates. We discuss these findings in light of buffalo socioecology but emphasise their implications in the broader evolutionary context of animal personalities and friendships.

Personality assessment of synanthropic rhesus macaques: implications and challenges

“…To investigate temporal consistency, which is a prerequisite of personality, focal data were split into two approximately equal non-overlapping phases (cf. Kluiver et al, 2022;Bhattacharjee et al, 2024a;Bhattacharjee et al, 2024b). The first phase consisted of data collected until April 2022, and the second phase included data collected between May and July 2022.…”