1
|
Siracusa ER, Pavez-Fox MA, Negron-Del Valle JE, Phillips D, Platt ML, Snyder-Mackler N, Higham JP, Brent LJN, Silk MJ. Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.09.584237. [PMID: 38559098 PMCID: PMC10979879 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.09.584237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
The benefits of social living are well established, but sociality also comes with costs, including infectious disease risk. This cost-benefit ratio of sociality is expected to change across individuals' lifespans, which may drive changes in social behaviour with age. To explore this idea, we combine data from a group-living primate for which social ageing has been described with epidemiological models to show that having lower social connectedness when older can protect against the costs of a hypothetical, directly transmitted endemic pathogen. Assuming no age differences in epidemiological characteristics (susceptibility to, severity, and duration of infection), older individuals suffered lower infection costs, which was explained largely because they were less connected in their social networks than younger individuals. This benefit of 'social ageing' depended on epidemiological characteristics and was greatest when infection severity increased with age. When infection duration increased with age, social ageing was beneficial only when pathogen transmissibility was low. Older individuals benefited most from having a lower frequency of interactions (strength) and network embeddedness (closeness) and benefited less from having fewer social partners (degree). Our study provides a first examination of the epidemiology of social ageing, demonstrating the potential for pathogens to influence evolutionary dynamics of social ageing in natural populations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Erin R. Siracusa
- School of Psychology, Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | | | - Daniel Phillips
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA
| | - Michael L. Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Department of Marketing, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Noah Snyder-Mackler
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA
- School for Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA
| | - James P. Higham
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, USA
| | - Lauren J. N. Brent
- School of Psychology, Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Matthew J. Silk
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Fisher DN, Cheney BJ. Dolphin social phenotypes vary in response to food availability but not the North Atlantic Oscillation index. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231187. [PMID: 37817593 PMCID: PMC10565371 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Social behaviours can allow individuals to flexibly respond to environmental change, potentially buffering adverse effects. However, individuals may respond differently to the same environmental stimulus, complicating predictions for population-level response to environmental change. Here, we show that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) alter their social behaviour at yearly and monthly scales in response to a proxy for food availability (salmon abundance) but do not respond to variation in a proxy for climate (the North Atlantic Oscillation index). There was also individual variation in plasticity for gregariousness and connectedness to distant parts of the social network, although these traits showed limited repeatability. By contrast, individuals showed consistent differences in clustering with their immediate social environment at the yearly scale but no individual variation in plasticity for this trait at either timescale. These results indicate that social behaviour in free-ranging cetaceans can be highly resource dependent with individuals increasing their connectedness over short timescales but possibly reducing their wider range of connection at longer timescales. Some social traits showed more individual variation in plasticity or mean behaviour than others, highlighting how predictions for the responses of populations to environmental variation must consider the type of individual variation present in the population.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David N. Fisher
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK
| | - Barbara J. Cheney
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Lighthouse Field Station, George Street, Cromarty IV11 8YL, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Torfs JRR, Eens M, Laméris DW, Staes N. Respiratory Disease Risk of Zoo-Housed Bonobos Is Associated with Sex and Betweenness Centrality in the Proximity Network. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:3597. [PMID: 34944372 PMCID: PMC8698162 DOI: 10.3390/ani11123597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 12/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Infectious diseases can be considered a threat to animal welfare and are commonly spread through both direct and indirect social interactions with conspecifics. This is especially true for species with complex social lives, like primates. While several studies have investigated the impact of sociality on disease risk in primates, only a handful have focused on respiratory disease, despite it being a major cause of morbidity and mortality in both wild and captive populations and thus an important threat to primate welfare. Therefore, we examined the role of social-network position on the occurrence of respiratory disease symptoms during one winter season in a relatively large group of 20 zoo-housed bonobos with managed fission-fusion dynamics. We found that within the proximity network, symptoms were more likely to occur in individuals with higher betweenness centrality, which are individuals that form bridges between different parts of the network. Symptoms were also more likely to occur in males than in females, independent of their social-network position. Taken together, these results highlight a combined role of close proximity and sex in increased risk of attracting respiratory disease, two factors that can be taken into account for further welfare management of the species.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jonas R. R. Torfs
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; (M.E.); (D.W.L.); (N.S.)
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Marcel Eens
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; (M.E.); (D.W.L.); (N.S.)
| | - Daan W. Laméris
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; (M.E.); (D.W.L.); (N.S.)
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Nicky Staes
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; (M.E.); (D.W.L.); (N.S.)
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Beck KB, Farine DR, Kempenaers B. Social network position predicts male mating success in a small passerine. Behav Ecol 2021; 32:856-864. [PMID: 34690546 PMCID: PMC8528538 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Revised: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals differ in the quantity and quality of their associations with conspecifics. The resulting variation in the positions that individuals occupy within their social environment can affect several aspects of life history, including reproduction. While research increasingly shows how social factors can predict dyadic mating patterns (who will breed with whom), much less is known about how an individual's social position affects its overall likelihood to acquire mating partner(s). We studied social networks of socially monogamous blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) to investigate whether the number and strength of connections to opposite-sex conspecifics, the ratio between same- and opposite-sex connections, and the tendency to move between social groups in the months prior to breeding affect individuals' success in acquiring 1) a breeding partner and 2) an extrapair partner. After controlling for differences in spatial location, we show that males that moved more often between social groups were more likely to acquire a breeding partner. Moreover, adult males that associated with more females were more likely to sire extrapair young. The number of female associates also predicted the proportion of familiar female breeding neighbors, suggesting that familiarity among neighbors may facilitate opportunities for extrapair matings. In females, none of the network metrics significantly predicted the likelihood of acquiring a breeding or extrapair partner. Our study suggests that the positioning of males within their social environment prior to breeding can translate into future mating success, adding an important new dimension to studies of (extrapair) mating behavior.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kristina B Beck
- Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Straße, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Damien R Farine
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Bart Kempenaers
- Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Straße, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Fisher DN, Kilgour RJ, Siracusa ER, Foote JR, Hobson EA, Montiglio PO, Saltz JB, Wey TW, Wice EW. Anticipated effects of abiotic environmental change on intraspecific social interactions. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:2661-2693. [PMID: 34212487 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Social interactions are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. A variety of ecological and evolutionary processes are dependent on social interactions, such as movement, disease spread, information transmission, and density-dependent reproduction and survival. Social interactions, like any behaviour, are context dependent, varying with environmental conditions. Currently, environments are changing rapidly across multiple dimensions, becoming warmer and more variable, while habitats are increasingly fragmented and contaminated with pollutants. Social interactions are expected to change in response to these stressors and to continue to change into the future. However, a comprehensive understanding of the form and magnitude of the effects of these environmental changes on social interactions is currently lacking. Focusing on four major forms of rapid environmental change currently occurring, we review how these changing environmental gradients are expected to have immediate effects on social interactions such as communication, agonistic behaviours, and group formation, which will thereby induce changes in social organisation including mating systems, dominance hierarchies, and collective behaviour. Our review covers intraspecific variation in social interactions across environments, including studies in both the wild and in laboratory settings, and across a range of taxa. The expected responses of social behaviour to environmental change are diverse, but we identify several general themes. First, very dry, variable, fragmented, or polluted environments are likely to destabilise existing social systems. This occurs as these conditions limit the energy available for complex social interactions and affect dissimilar phenotypes differently. Second, a given environmental change can lead to opposite responses in social behaviour, and the direction of the response often hinges on the natural history of the organism in question. Third, our review highlights the fact that changes in environmental factors are not occurring in isolation: multiple factors are changing simultaneously, which may have antagonistic or synergistic effects, and more work should be done to understand these combined effects. We close by identifying methodological and analytical techniques that might help to study the response of social interactions to changing environments, highlight consistent patterns among taxa, and predict subsequent evolutionary change. We expect that the changes in social interactions that we document here will have consequences for individuals, groups, and for the ecology and evolution of populations, and therefore warrant a central place in the study of animal populations, particularly in an era of rapid environmental change.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David N Fisher
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, U.K
| | - R Julia Kilgour
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, U.S.A
| | - Erin R Siracusa
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4PY, U.K
| | - Jennifer R Foote
- Department of Biology, Algoma University, 1520 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, P6A 2G4, Canada
| | - Elizabeth A Hobson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, 318 College Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, U.S.A
| | - Pierre-Olivier Montiglio
- Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, 141 Avenue Président-Kennedy, Montréal, QC, H2X 3X8, Canada
| | - Julia B Saltz
- Department of Biosciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005-1827, U.S.A
| | - Tina W Wey
- Maelstrom Research, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montréal, QC, H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Eric W Wice
- Department of Biosciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005-1827, U.S.A
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Bond ML, Lee DE, Farine DR, Ozgul A, König B. Sociability increases survival of adult female giraffes. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202770. [PMID: 33563118 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies increasingly show that social connectedness plays a key role in determining survival, in addition to natural and anthropogenic environmental factors. Few studies, however, integrated social, non-social and demographic data to elucidate what components of an animal's socio-ecological environment are most important to their survival. Female giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) form structured societies with highly dynamic group membership but stable long-term associations. We examined the relative contributions of sociability (relationship strength, gregariousness and betweenness), together with those of the natural (food sources and vegetation types) and anthropogenic environment (distance from human settlements), to adult female giraffe survival. We tested predictions about the influence of sociability and natural and human factors at two social levels: the individual and the social community. Survival was primarily driven by individual- rather than community-level social factors. Gregariousness (the number of other females each individual was observed with on average) was most important in explaining variation in female adult survival, more than other social traits and any natural or anthropogenic environmental factors. For adult female giraffes, grouping with more other females, even as group membership frequently changes, is correlated with better survival, and this sociability appears to be more important than several attributes of their non-social environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M L Bond
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Wild Nature Institute, Concord, NH, USA
| | - D E Lee
- Wild Nature Institute, Concord, NH, USA.,Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - D R Farine
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany.,Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - A Ozgul
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - B König
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Parasitism and host social behaviour: a meta-analysis of insights derived from social network analysis. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
|
8
|
Webber QM, Schneider DC, Vander Wal E. Is less more? A commentary on the practice of ‘metric hacking’ in animal social network analysis. Anim Behav 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.08.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
|
9
|
Contribution of Connectivity Assessments to Green Infrastructure (GI). ISPRS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEO-INFORMATION 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/ijgi9040212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
A major goal of green infrastructure (GI) is to provide functional networks of habitats and ecosystems to maintain biodiversity long-term, while at the same time optimizing landscape and ecosystem functions and services to meet human needs. Traditionally, connectivity studies are informed by movement ecology with species-specific attributes of the type and timing of movement (e.g., dispersal, foraging, mating) and movement distances, while spatial environmental data help delineate movement pathways across landscapes. To date, a range of methods and approaches are available that (a) are relevant across any organism and movement type independent of time and space scales, (b) are ready-to-use as standalone freeware or custom GIS implementation, and (c) produce appealing visual outputs that facilitate communication with land managers. However, to enhance the robustness of connectivity assessments and ensure that current trends in connectivity modeling contribute to GI with their full potential, common denominators on which to ground planning and design strategies are required. Likewise, comparable, repeatable connectivity assessments will be needed to put results of these scientific tools into practice for multi-functional GI plans and implementation. In this paper, we discuss use and limitations of state-of-the-art connectivity methods in contributing to GI implementation.
Collapse
|
10
|
The role of social network behavior, swimming performance, and fish size in the determination of angling vulnerability in bluegill. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2754-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
|
11
|
Ezenwa VO, Worsley-Tonks KEL. Social living simultaneously increases infection risk and decreases the cost of infection. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:rspb.2018.2142. [PMID: 30487314 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.2142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2018] [Accepted: 11/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Elevated parasite infection risk is considered to be a near-universal cost of social living. However, living in groups may also provide benefits that reduce the negative impacts of infection. These potential 'tolerance' benefits of living socially are theoretically possible, but have rarely been described. In this study, we used an anthelmintic treatment experiment in wild Grant's gazelles (Nanger granti), who are commonly infected with gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN), to show that social living confers both costs and benefits related to GIN parasitism. We show that although larger group size increases GIN infection risk, a key cost of GIN infection-the suppression of food intake-is simultaneously moderated by living in larger groups. Our findings help illuminate the complex role parasites play in the evolution of host social behaviour.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa O Ezenwa
- Odum School of Ecology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA .,Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
| | - Katherine E L Worsley-Tonks
- Odum School of Ecology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.,Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA
| |
Collapse
|