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Relationship between dominance hierarchy steepness and rank-relatedness of benefits in primates.

Huang, Pengzhen; Arlet, Malgorzata E; Balasubramaniam, Krishna N; Beisner, Brianne A; Bliss-Moreau, Eliza; Brent, Lauren J N; Duboscq, Julie; García-Nisa, Iván; Kaburu, Stefano S K; Kendal, Rachel; Konečná, Martina; Marty, Pascal R; McCowan, Brenda; Micheletta, Jérôme; Ostner, Julia; Schülke, Oliver; Schino, Gabriele; Majolo, Bonaventura

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Authors

Pengzhen Huang

Malgorzata E Arlet

Krishna N Balasubramaniam

Brianne A Beisner

Eliza Bliss-Moreau

Lauren J N Brent

Julie Duboscq

Iván García-Nisa

Stefano S K Kaburu

Martina Konečná

Pascal R Marty

Brenda McCowan

Jérôme Micheletta

Julia Ostner

Oliver Schülke

Gabriele Schino

Bonaventura Majolo



Abstract

In animal social groups, the extent to which individuals consistently win agonistic interactions and their ability to monopolize resources represent 2 core aspects of their competitive regime. However, whether these two aspects are closely correlated within groups has rarely been studied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that hierarchy steepness, which is generally used to represent power differentials between group members, predicts the variation in the distribution of fitness-related benefits (i.e. fecundity, infant survival, mating success, and feeding success) in relation to individual dominance ranks. We tested this hypothesis in primate groups using comparative phylogenetic meta-analytical techniques. Specifically, we reviewed published and unpublished studies to extract data on individual dominance ranks, their access to fitness-related benefits, and hierarchy steepness. We collected and included in our analysis a total of 153 data points, representing 27 species (including 2 chimpanzee sub-species). From these, we used 4 common methods to measure individual dominance ranks and hierarchy steepness, i.e. D ij -based normalized David's scores, randomized Elo-ratings, and David's scores and Elo-ratings estimated in Bayesian frameworks. We found that hierarchy steepness had no effect on the strength of the relationship between dominance rank and access to fitness-related benefits. Our results suggest that hierarchy steepness does not reflect between-group variation in the extent to which individual dominance affects the acquisition of fitness-related benefits in primates. Although the ability to win agonistic encounters is essential, we speculate that other behavioral strategies adopted by individuals may play crucial roles in resource acquisition in animal competitive regimes.

Citation

Huang, P., Arlet, M. E., Balasubramaniam, K. N., Beisner, B. A., Bliss-Moreau, E., Brent, L. J. N., Duboscq, J., García-Nisa, I., Kaburu, S. S. K., Kendal, R., Konečná, M., Marty, P. R., McCowan, B., Micheletta, J., Ostner, J., Schülke, O., Schino, G., & Majolo, B. (2024). Relationship between dominance hierarchy steepness and rank-relatedness of benefits in primates. Behavioral Ecology, 35(5), Article arae066. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae066

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 11, 2024
Online Publication Date Aug 13, 2024
Publication Date Sep 1, 2024
Deposit Date Sep 10, 2024
Publicly Available Date Sep 10, 2024
Journal Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Print ISSN 1045-2249
Electronic ISSN 1465-7279
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 35
Issue 5
Article Number arae066
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae066
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2820311
PMID 39193469

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