Reactive and pre-emptive spatial cohesion in a social primate

LaBarge, L.R.; Allan, A.T.L.; Berman, C.M.; Margulis, S.W.; Hill, R.A.

Abstract

Spatial cohesion in group-living animals is assumed as a risk-sensitive characteristic. Few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption or asked whether risk-related changes in spatial cohesion operate over short or long-term scales. We explored whether two groups of wild samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albogularis schwarzi) adjusted cohesion in reaction to naturally occurring risk from eagles and inter-group encounters using the number of conspecific neighbours as our response. Data on these directly observed encounters were used to assess reactive responses to immediate events. GPS-recorded locations of these encounters allowed us to create relative risk landscapes to investigate whether these groups might pre-emptively increase cohesion in high risk locations, in the absence of a direct threat. Multi-model inference was used to compare support for candidate models representing biological hypotheses. We found support for changes in cohesion in reaction to immediate inter-group conflict in both study groups. In contrast, only eagle risk apparently elicited a pre-emptive response. These results suggest that spatial cohesion is risk-sensitive, but that responses differ between types of risk and between groups.

Citation

LaBarge, L., Allan, A., Berman, C., Margulis, S., & Hill, R. (2020). Reactive and pre-emptive spatial cohesion in a social primate. Animal Behaviour, 163, 115-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.03.005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 22, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2020
• Publication Date: May 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 27, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 8, 2021
• Journal: Animal Behaviour
• Print ISSN: 0003-3472
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 163
• Pages: 115-126
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.03.005
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1309504