Dominance rank, female reproductive synchrony, and male reproductive skew in wild Assamese macaques

Sukmak, Manakorn; Wajjwalku, Worawidh; Ostner, Julia; Schülke, Oliver

doi:10.1007/s00265-014-1721-z

Cited by 43 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Cooperative success and bond maintenance are intertwined regarding social bonds as alliances that generate adaptive benefits via support in critical situations (DeScioli & Kurzban, 2009; Massen & Koski, 2014; Schülke et al, 2010; Seyfarth & Cheney, 2012). Mutual coalitionary support helps bond partners to attain and maintain high social status, which is linked to reproductive success in male Assamese macaques (Schülke et al, 2010; Sukmak, Wajjwalku, Ostner, & Schülke, 2014). In Barbary macaques, it was demonstrated experimentally that strong social bonds positively influenced the maintenance of cooperation over a long period (Molesti & Majolo, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Ebenau

Borell

Penke

et al. 2019

Preprint

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23Animal social bonds are defined as stable, equitable and strong affiliative and cooperative 24 relationships similar to human friendships. Just as human friendships, social bonds are 25 thought to function as alliances that generate adaptive benefits via support in critical 26 situations. In humans, similarity in many sociodemographic, behavioural and intrapersonal 27 characteristics leads to trust and is predictive of friendships. Specifically, personality 28 homophily, that is the tendency of individuals to form social bonds with others who have a 29 similar personality, may increase predictability and facilitate trust and reciprocity among 30 partners with compatible behavioural tendencies. While evidence for social bonding in 31 nonhumans is accumulating, far less is known about its predictors. Here, personality 32 homophily effects on the formation and maintenance of social bonds are shown in twenty-four 33 wild male Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), at Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, 34 Thailand. Dyadic bond strength increased with increased similarity in the trait Connectedness 35 (i.e. frequent and diverse neighbours in 5m proximity and pronounced social tolerance, as 36 high rates of friendly approaches to and by others). To differentiate whether homophily 37 indeed predicted bond formation or whether bonded males' personalities became more similar 38 over time, we tested the stability of the connectedness traits in a subset of immigrating males 39 that had to form new bonds. Connectedness in these males remained stable suggesting that 40 males do not adapt their personality to their partner. Our results support the idea of a shared 41 evolutionary origin of homophily as a partner choice strategy in human and non-human 42 animals. The main selective advantage of personality similarity in animal social bonds may 43 result from a more reliable cooperation among individuals with similar cooperative 44 behavioural tendencies.45

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Ebenau

Borell

Penke

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Paternity distribution over dominance ranks closely matches predictions from a Priority of Access model, i.e. rank is positively associated with paternity success, but the more females conceive the more males sire offspring (Sukmak et al, ). Thus, every additional female that conceives in a given mating season increases female receptive synchrony and decreases male monopolization potential, so that more subordinate males get access to receptive females.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…We suggest that such a collective action problem can be partly overcome in Assamese macaques for two reasons. Firstly, male reproductive skew in the study group is low (29% alpha male paternity, Sukmak et al, ) and can be influenced by home range expansion, which allows many males to benefit from home range defense. Females breed seasonally, and female receptive synchrony is high because they largely conceal ovulation from males, as indicated by rather constant male copulation rates from the onset to the end of the mating season (Fürtbauer et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Large subadult males are not necessarily natal males, because males often migrate as juveniles (Ostner and Schülke, unpublished data). Every female mates with almost all males in the group (Fürtbauer et al, ) including large subadult males, and large subadult males are known to sire offspring (Sukmak et al, ). For simplicity, all these males are referred to as adult males hereafter.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Males matter: Increased home range size is associated with the number of resident males after controlling for ecological factors in wildAssamese macaques

Richter

Heesen

Nenadić

et al. 2015

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…Rather, aggression rates were predicted by an interaction of COMT genotype and a salient social condition in these primates- Higher-ranking individuals occupy more central positions within the group and have privileged access to food resources and mating partners. 57,[92][93][94] Levels of counter-aggression are low 56 and overall, aggression is directed down the hierarchy. 47 The observation that depending on genotype some low ranking adults express higher aggression rates than some higher ranking ones may be explained by the redirection of aggression to immatures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COMTVal¹⁵⁸Met moderates the link between rank and aggression in a non‐human primate

Gutleb

Roos

Noll

et al. 2017

Genes Brain and Behavior

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The COMT Val Met polymorphism is one of the most widely studied genetic polymorphisms in humans implicated in aggression and the moderation of stressful life event effects. We screened a wild primate population for polymorphisms at the COMT Val Met site and phenotyped them for aggression to test whether the human polymorphism exists and is associated with variation in aggressive behavior. Subjects were all adults from 4 study groups (37 males, 40 females) of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) in their natural habitat (Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand). We collected focal animal behavioral data (27 males, 36 females, 5964 focal hours) and fecal samples for non-invasive DNA analysis. We identified the human COMT Val Met polymorphism (14 Met/Met, 41 Val/Met and 22 Val/Val). Preliminary results suggest that COMT genotype and dominance rank interact to influence aggression rates. Aggression rates increased with rank in Val/Val, but decreased in Met/Met and Val/Met individuals, with no significant main effect of COMT genotype on aggression. Further support for the interaction effect comes from time series analyses revealing that when changing from lower to higher rank position Val/Val individuals decreased, whereas Met/Met individuals increased their aggression rate. Contradicting the interpretation of earlier studies, we show that the widely studied Val Met polymorphism in COMT is not unique to humans and yields similar behavioral phenotypes in a non-human primate. This study represents an important step towards understanding individual variation in aggression in a wild primate population and may inform human behavioral geneticists about the evolutionary roots of inter-individual variation in aggression.

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Dominance rank, female reproductive synchrony, and male reproductive skew in wild Assamese macaques

Cited by 43 publications

References 81 publications

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Males matter: Increased home range size is associated with the number of resident males after controlling for ecological factors in wildAssamese macaques

COMTVal¹⁵⁸Met moderates the link between rank and aggression in a non‐human primate

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Dominance rank, female reproductive synchrony, and male reproductive skew in wild Assamese macaques

Cited by 43 publications

References 81 publications

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Personality homophily affects male social bonding in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis)

Males matter: Increased home range size is associated with the number of resident males after controlling for ecological factors in wildAssamese macaques

COMTVal158Met moderates the link between rank and aggression in a non‐human primate

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COMTVal¹⁵⁸Met moderates the link between rank and aggression in a non‐human primate