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Abstract
Sociality is widespread among animals, and involves complex relationships within and between social groups. While intragroup interactions are often cooperative, intergroup interactions typically involve conflict, or at best tolerance. Active cooperation between members of distinct, separate groups occurs very rarely, predominantly in some primate and ant species. Here, we ask why intergroup cooperation is so rare, and what conditions favour its evolution. We present a model incorporating intra- and intergroup relationships and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that dispersal modes play a pivotal role in the evolution of intergroup interactions. Both long-distance and local dispersal processes drive population social structure, and the costs and benefits of intergroup conflict, tolerance and cooperation. Overall, the evolution of multi-group interaction patterns, including both intergroup aggression and intergroup tolerance, or even altruism, is more likely with mostly localized dispersal. However, the evolution of these intergroup relationships may have significant ecological impacts, and this feedback may alter the ecological conditions that favour its own evolution. These results show that the evolution of intergroup cooperation is favoured by a specific set of conditions, and may not be evolutionarily stable. We discuss how our results relate to empirical evidence of intergroup cooperation in ants and primates. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
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Affiliation(s)
- António M. M. Rodrigues
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK,Schools of Medicine and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Jessica L. Barker
- Surgo Ventures, Washington, DC 20036, USA,Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark,Division of Population Health Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
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Koops K, Humle T, Frandsen P, Fitzgerald M, D'Auvergne L, Jackson HA, Børsting C, Siegismund HR, Soumah AG, Hvilsom C. Genetics as a novel tool in mining impact assessment and biomonitoring of critically endangered western chimpanzees in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea. Conservat Sci and Prac 2023. [DOI: 10.1111/csp2.12898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/18/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Kathelijne Koops
- Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland
- Department of Archaeology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
| | - Tatyana Humle
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent Kent UK
| | - Peter Frandsen
- Research and Conservation Copenhagen Zoo Copenhagen Denmark
| | - Maegan Fitzgerald
- Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology Texas A&M University College Station Texas USA
| | - Lucy D'Auvergne
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent Kent UK
| | - Hazel A. Jackson
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent Kent UK
| | - Claus Børsting
- Department of Forensic Medicine University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
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Karczmarski L, Chan SCY, Chui SYS, Cameron EZ. Individual identification and photographic techniques in mammalian ecological and behavioural research—Part 2: Field studies and applications. Mamm Biol 2023. [DOI: 10.1007/s42991-023-00344-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/10/2023]
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Petty LE, Phillippi-Falkenstein K, Kubisch HM, Raveendran M, Harris RA, Vallender EJ, Huff CD, Bohm RP, Rogers J, Below JE. Pedigree reconstruction and distant pairwise relatedness estimation from genome sequence data: A demonstration in a population of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Mol Ecol Resour 2021; 21:1333-1346. [PMID: 33386679 PMCID: PMC8247968 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2019] [Revised: 11/13/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
A primary challenge in the analysis of free‐ranging animal populations is the accurate estimation of relatedness among individuals. Many aspects of population analysis rely on knowledge of relatedness patterns, including socioecology, demography, heritability and gene mapping analyses, wildlife conservation and the management of breeding colonies. Methods for determining relatedness using genome‐wide data have improved our ability to determine kinship and reconstruct pedigrees in humans. However, methods for reconstructing complex pedigree structures and estimating distant relatedness (beyond third‐degree) have not been widely applied to other species. We sequenced the genomes of 150 male rhesus macaques from the Tulane National Primate Research Center colony to estimate pairwise relatedness, reconstruct closely related pedigrees, estimate more distant relationships and augment colony records. Methods for determining relatedness developed for human genetic data were applied and evaluated in the analysis of nonhuman primates, including identity‐by‐descent‐based methods for pedigree reconstruction and shared segment‐based inference of more distant relatedness. We compared the genotype‐based pedigrees and estimated relationships to available colony pedigree records and found high concordance (95.5% agreement) between expected and identified relationships for close relatives. In addition, we detected distant relationships not captured in colony records, including some as distant as twelfth‐degree. Furthermore, while deep sequence coverage is preferable, we show that this approach can also provide valuable information when only low‐coverage (5×) sequence data is available. Our findings demonstrate the value of these methods for determination of relatedness in various animal populations, with diverse applications to conservation biology, evolutionary and ecological research and biomedical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren E Petty
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Department of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - H Michael Kubisch
- Division of Veterinary Medicine, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA, USA
| | - Muthuswamy Raveendran
- Human Genome Sequencing Center and Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - R Alan Harris
- Human Genome Sequencing Center and Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Eric J Vallender
- Division of Veterinary Medicine, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA
| | - Chad D Huff
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Rudolf P Bohm
- Division of Veterinary Medicine, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA, USA
| | - Jeffrey Rogers
- Human Genome Sequencing Center and Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jennifer E Below
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Department of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
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Lucchesi S, Cheng L, Deschner T, Mundry R, Wessling EG, Surbeck M. Better together? How intergroup associations affect energy balance and feeding behavior in wild bonobos. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021; 75. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02943-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
When the benefits of interacting with out-group members exceed the associated costs, social groups may be expected to be tolerant towards each other. However, in many species exhibiting intergroup tolerance, the nature of benefits gained from intergroup encounters remains unclear. We investigated the potential costs and benefits associated with intergroup associations in bonobos, a species with varying degrees of intergroup tolerance, by testing whether these associations conferred energetic benefits to participants under different socioecological contexts and whether the consequences of these associations substantially differed from within-group competition. We used measures of socioecological factors (fruit abundance and group size), feeding and ranging behaviors, and a physiological marker of energy balance (urinary c-peptide of insulin) collected over a 19-month period from two neighboring wild communities in the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We found that intergroup associations were not related to individuals’ energy balance, but they were related to variations in individuals’ ranging and feeding behavior. Specifically, bonobos traveled longer distances, visited larger fruit patches, and increased the time spent feeding on fruits on days they associated with the neighboring group. These adaptations in feeding behavior may be strategies to offset the energetic costs of increased travel distances. In the absence of obvious energetic benefits and with clear strategies employed to offset energetic costs, it is likely that intergroup associations in bonobos provide benefits unrelated to energy acquisition, such as social benefits. Our study sheds light on the potential incentives promoting social networks to extend beyond and across groups in a tolerant species.
Significance statement
Intergroup encounters can be energetically costly due to increased competition over resources. Yet, some species associate with out-group individuals for extended periods of time when the benefits of participating in these associations exceed the potential costs. Bonobos, a species exhibiting intergroup tolerance, modified their feeding behavior during intergroup associations by feeding on larger fruit patches and increasing their time spent feeding on fruits, likely to offset energetic costs of increased travel distances. As results, individuals’ energy balance was not related with intergroup associations. The employment of such strategies in addition to the absence of clear energetic benefits suggests that intergroup associations in bonobos provide social rather than ecological benefits.
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