Resource competition shapes female–female aggression in olive baboons, Papio anubis

Patterson, Sam K.; Strum, Shirley C.; Silk, Joan B.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.03.013

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Specifically, we found that receptive females respond to an increment in the number of in-group males by decreasing their swelling duration, presumably to reduce male coercion. In contrast, we failed to find any evidence that female-female competition, or female counter-strategies to infanticide, may influence the length of sexual receptivity, while we confirmed previous research that suggested the OSR is not an accurate predictor of rates of female-female aggression [25,63]. Following these results, future investigations and cross-population studies of the scale and sources of variation of sexual receptivity within and among females, and of the underlying physiological mechanisms responsible for the lengthening of swelling duration, will further confirm the extent to which females can modulate it in response to changes in their social environment.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Cycle length flexibility: is the duration of sexual receptivity associated with changes in the social environment?

Darmis

Huchard

Cowlishaw

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Research in social mammals has revealed the complexity of female counter-strategies to reproductive competition and sexual conflict. For example, comparative research has shown that the length of female sexual receptivity varies with infanticide risk, but whether individuals can strategically adjust their period of receptivity from cycle to cycle remains unknown. This study addresses this gap by exploring whether wild female chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) modulate their receptivity in response to the social environment. Given that female chacma baboons (a) compete for paternal care and (b) that infanticide risk and coercion are high, we predicted that: females could (a) shorten their receptive period to reduce intrasexual aggression and (b) male coercion, or (c) increase their conceptive period to access multiple or their preferred male. We quantified 158 receptivity cycles from 47 females recorded over 15 years. Female swelling duration, but not maximal-swelling, had low repeatability between females, but most variation in both phases stemmed from within females. We found evidence that females decrease their oestrous duration in response to an increasing number of in-group males, possibly to decrease their exposure to sexual coercion. We thus present preliminary evidence for an unexplored mechanism under sexual selection: female cycle length manipulation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Cycle length flexibility: is the duration of sexual receptivity associated with changes in the social environment?

Darmis

Huchard

Cowlishaw

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Our results should not necessarily be interpreted as separate evidence for (absence of) changes in each spatial behaviour in isolation, but to indicate that age is associated with generalisable within-individual changes in socio-spatial behavioural syndromes and reduced social connectedness. Social senescence could be a response to aggressive or competitive interactions with younger individuals that may have greater resource demands: to give an example, reproductive female olive baboons (Papio anubis) are more aggressive to other females for this reason 42 . Older female deer are less likely to reproduce 33 , but reproductive status was included in our models and is therefore unlikely to be directly responsible for the observed social senescence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social

et al. 2022

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Social relationships are important to many aspects of animals' lives, and an individual's connections may change over the course of their lifespan. Currently, it is unclear whether social connectedness declines within individuals as they age, and what the underlying mechanisms might be, so the role of age in structuring animal social systems remains unresolved, particularly in non-primates. Here, we describe senescent declines in social connectedness using 46 years of data in a wild, individually monitored population of a long-lived mammal (European red deer, Cervus elaphus). Applying a series of spatial and social network analyses, we demonstrate that these declines occur due to withinindividual changes in social behaviour, with correlated changes in spatial behaviour (smaller home ranges and movements to lower-density, lower-quality areas). These findings demonstrate that within-individual socio-spatial behavioural changes can lead older animals in fission-fusion societies to become less socially connected, shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring wild animal populations.

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“…Interference might correspond to different types of behaviours, ranging from dominant males attacking and chasing subordinate males to prevent them from mating, to dominant females excluding subordinate females from foraging areas. Among the examples are males of Alpine ibex, for which a dominance hierarchy is established before the start of the mating season [19,20], and dominant, lactating olive baboon females excluding subordinate females from foraging through aggression [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of local versus global competition on reproductive skew and sex differences in social dominance behaviour

Leimar

Bshary

2022

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Social hierarchies are often found in group-living animals. The hierarchy position can influence reproductive success (RS), with a skew towards high-ranking individuals. The amount of aggression in social dominance varies greatly, both between species and between males and females within species. Using game theory we study this variation by taking into account the degree to which reproductive competition in a social group is mainly local to the group, emphasizing within-group relative RS, or global to a larger population, emphasizing an individual’s absolute RS. Our model is similar to recent approaches in that reinforcement learning is used as a behavioural mechanism allowing social-hierarchy formation. We test two hypotheses. The first is that local competition should favour the evolution of mating or foraging interference, and thus of reproductive skew. Second, decreases in reproductive output caused by an individual’s accumulated fighting damage, such as reduced parenting ability, will favour less intense aggression but should have little influence on reproductive skew. From individual-based simulations of the evolution of social dominance and interference, we find support for both hypotheses. We discuss to what extent our results can explain observed sex differences in reproductive skew and social dominance behaviour.

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Resource competition shapes female–female aggression in olive baboons, Papio anubis

Cited by 9 publications

References 74 publications

Cycle length flexibility: is the duration of sexual receptivity associated with changes in the social environment?

Cycle length flexibility: is the duration of sexual receptivity associated with changes in the social environment?

Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social

Effects of local versus global competition on reproductive skew and sex differences in social dominance behaviour

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