Rank-dependent social inheritance determines social network structure in a wild mammal population

Ilany, Amiyaal; Holekamp, Kay E.; Akçay, Erol

doi:10.1101/2020.04.10.036087

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…group hunts or collective border patrols) or may be more common among strongly bonded individuals, and thus merit further study. For example, co-traveling may play an important role in the vertical transmission of social relationships from mother to offspring [37]. Finally, hyenas are known to use long-distance vocalizations to recruit their clan-mates over large distances in contexts requiring collective action [25], so the role of communication in driving fission-fusion patterns also warrants further investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily ranging and den usage patterns structure fission-fusion dynamics and social associations in spotted hyenas

Strauss

Jensen

Gersick

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Environment structure often shapes social interactions. Spatial attractors that draw multiple individuals may play a particularly important role in dispersed groups, where individuals must first encounter one another to interact. We use GPS data recorded simultaneously from five spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) within a single clan to investigate how communal dens and daily ranging patterns shape fission-fusion dynamics (subgroup splits and merges). We introduce a species-general framework for identifying and characterizing dyadic fission-fusion events and describe a taxonomy of ten possible configurations of these events. Applying this framework to the hyena data illuminates the spatiotemporal structure of social interactions within hyenas' daily routines. The most common types of fission-fusion events involve close approaches between individuals, do not involve co-travel together, and occur at the communal den. Comparison to permutation-based reference models suggests that den usage structures broad-scale patterns of social encounters, but that other factors influence how those encounters unfold. We discuss the dual role of communal dens in hyenas as physical and social resources, and suggest that dens are an example of a general "social piggybacking" process whereby environmental attractors take on social importance as reliable places to encounter conspecifics, causing social and spatial processes to become fundamentally intertwined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily ranging and den usage patterns structure fission-fusion dynamics and social associations in spotted hyenas

Strauss

Jensen

Gersick

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…One example of a socially explicit ABM in the study of animal behaviour is the social inheritance model , in which offspring are likely to form connections with friends of their parents while avoiding parents’ enemies (Ilany & Akçay, 2016 ). While such a mechanism is highly likely, and indeed has been supported in some social systems, such as spotted hyenas, Crocuta crocuta (Ilany, Holekamp & Akçay, 2020 ), this model requires knowledge about relatedness and historical interactions, or long‐term relationships, that are not available in all study systems. In our burbil case study in Appendix S1 (Section 3.4.2 ) we develop two socially explicit agent‐based models that build on our spatially explicit model.…”

Section: Generative Reference Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A guide to choosing and implementing reference models for social network analysis

et al. 2021

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Analysing social networks is challenging. Key features of relational data require the use of non-standard statistical methods such as developing system-specific null, or reference, models that randomize one or more components of the observed data. Here we review a variety of randomization procedures that generate reference models for social network analysis. Reference models provide an expectation for hypothesis testing when analysing network data. We outline the key stages in producing an effective reference model and detail four approaches for generating reference distributions: permutation, resampling, sampling from a distribution, and generative models. We highlight when each type of approach would be appropriate and note potential pitfalls for researchers to avoid. Throughout, we illustrate our points with examples from a simulated social system. Our aim is to provide social network researchers with a deeper understanding of analytical approaches to enhance their confidence when tailoring reference models to specific research questions.

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“…In addition to parental support, the offspring of adults higher in the hierarchy could receive greater third-party support from non-parents, here termed 'social support' (see section II.5b). It has been suggested that offspring in group-living species may inherit their parents' social associations (Goldenberg, Douglas-Hamilton, and Wittemyer 2016;Ilany and Akçay 2016;de Waal 1996; but see 25 Ogino, Maldonado-Chaparro, and Farine, 2021); recent work in spotted hyenas has demonstrated a strong correlation between parent and offspring social associations that persists for up to six years (Ilany, Holekamp, & Akçay, 2020), demonstrating the potential for offspring to inherit coalition partners. Such social inheritance of parental associations could occur simply via passive space-use processes -where offspring remain with their parents who tend to move in proximity to their affiliates, resulting in offspring and parental affiliates (or their offspring) forming associations (Ilany & Akçay, 2016).…”

Section: ) Parental Effects On Offspring Third-party Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

How feedback and feed-forward mechanisms link determinants of social dominance

Dehnen¹,

Arbon²,

Farine³

et al. 2021

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In many animal societies, individuals differ consistently in their ability to win agonistic interactions, resulting in dominance hierarchies. These differences arise due to a range of factors that can influence individuals’ abilities to win agonistic interactions, spanning from genetically driven traits through to individuals’ recent interaction history. Yet, despite a century of study since Schjelderup-Ebbe’s seminal paper on social dominance, we still lack a general understanding of how these different factors work together to determine individuals’ positions in hierarchies. Here, we first outline five widely studied factors that can influence interaction outcomes: intrinsic attributes, resource value asymmetry, winner-loser effects, dyadic interaction-outcome history and third-party support. A review of the evidence shows that whilst different factors have been shown to be important in specific systems, there are few empirical cases where one factor has a definitive effect. We then propose that mixed empirical support for a single factor is likely to arise due to feedback loops, whereby the outcomes of previous agonistic interactions (e.g. access to food) impact factors that might be important in subsequent interactions (e.g. body condition). We provide a conceptual framework which illustrates that there are many potential routes through which feedbacks can occur. Such feedbacks suggest that the factors that determine outcomes of dominance interactions are highly intertwined and are likely to rarely act independently of one-another. Further, we generalise our framework to include multi-generational feed-forward mechanisms and highlight how interaction outcomes in one generation can influence the factors determining interaction outcomes of their offspring via a range of parental effects. This general framework describes how interaction outcomes and the factors determining them are linked within generations via feedback loops, and between generations via feed-forward mechanisms. We then highlight methodological approaches that will facilitate the study of feedback loops and dominance dynamics. Lastly, we discuss how our framework can shape future research, including investigating how feedbacks in dominance hierarchies produce ‘self-organised’ structure, exploring how interaction outcomes are integrated to form dominance hierarchies, and the routes of parental influence on the dominance status of offspring. Ultimately, by considering dominance interactions as part of a dynamic system, that also feeds forward into subsequent generations, we will better understand the factors that structure dominance hierarchies in animal groups.

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Rank-dependent social inheritance determines social network structure in a wild mammal population

Cited by 4 publications

References 36 publications

Daily ranging and den usage patterns structure fission-fusion dynamics and social associations in spotted hyenas

Daily ranging and den usage patterns structure fission-fusion dynamics and social associations in spotted hyenas

A guide to choosing and implementing reference models for social network analysis

How feedback and feed-forward mechanisms link determinants of social dominance

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