Social networks of reintroduced Przewalski’s horses in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area (Mongolia)

Abstract

Analysing social networks is a powerful tool for understanding the ecology of social species. While most studies focus on the role of each group member, few compare groups with different characteristics. The current population of Przewalski's horses Equus ferus przewalskii at the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area (Mongolia) includes groups of wild-born and captive-bred individuals with different experiences with the area (acclimatizing, long-term reintroduced and wild-born), therefore serving as an ideal natural behavioural lab. We filmed 11 groups for 141.5 hours in summer 2018 (July), late spring 2019 (May, June), and autumn 2019 (September, October). Affiliative and agonistic interactions were recorded, and social networks were created. We tested the influence of origin, experience, season, sex, age, relative time belonging to the group, relatedness, and dominance rank on different network indices at the individual and group levels. We found that groups with greater experience in the area are generally better connected than members of the newly formed groups. However, these strong networks were created by wild-born individuals with very low interaction rates. On the contrary, inexperienced groups composed of captive-bred individuals displayed many interactions but created weak social networks. The results show a trend of behavioural transition from acclimatizing through long-term reintroduced to wild-born groups, supporting that the newly-formed groups of released Przewalski's horses need time to display the typical social behaviour patterns of wild-born individuals. Long-term monitoring of released Przewalski's horses is recommended to promote success of thisreintroduction program.

Personality homophily drives female friendships in a feral ungulate

“…Ungulates represent a wide range of species with varying social organisations 33 , providing a suitable system to expand the investigation of the emergence of friendships. Several ungulate species exhibit complex sociality patterns, including marked preferences for specific group members over others (e.g., cattle 34 , goat 35 , Przewalski’s horse 36 , bison 37 , water buffalo 38 ). However, existing research has predominantly used demographic characteristics, e.g., age and sex, often coupled with kinship and dominance rank relationships, to explain sociality patterns in ‘non-random’ or heterogeneous networks.…”