Strong and Consistent Social Bonds Enhance the Longevity of Female Baboons

Silk, Joan B.; Beehner, Jacinta C.; Bergman, Thore J.; Crockford, Catherine; Engh, Anne L.; Moscovice, Liza R.; Wittig, Roman M.; Seyfarth, Robert M.; Cheney, Dorothy L.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.05.067

Cited by 634 publications

(640 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…), for example, dominance rank was not the best predictor of two measures of female reproductive success: offspring survival and longevity. Instead, females with the highest fitness were those with the strongest and most persistent bonds with other females [22][23][24][25]. Similar correlations between cooperative social bonds and components of fitness have been observed in a variety of other social mammals, including in particular humans [6].…”

Section: The Adaptive Value Of Social Bondsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Adaptations for social cognition in the primate brain

Platt

Seyfarth

Cheney

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 18 to a theme issue 'The evolution of cooperation based on direct fitness benefits'. Studies of the factors affecting reproductive success in group-living monkeys have traditionally focused on competitive traits, like the acquisition of high dominance rank. Recent research, however, indicates that the ability to form cooperative social bonds has an equally strong effect on fitness. Two implications follow. First, strong social bonds make individuals' fitness interdependent and the 'free-rider' problem disappears. Second, individuals must make adaptive choices that balance competition and cooperation-often with the same partners. The proximate mechanisms underlying these behaviours are only just beginning to be understood. Recent results from cognitive and systems neuroscience provide us some evidence that many social and nonsocial decisions are mediated ultimately by abstract, domain-general neural mechanisms. However, other populations of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala and parietal cortex specifically encode the type, importance and value of social information. Whether these specialized populations of neurons arise by selection or through developmental plasticity in response to the challenges of social life remains unknown. Many brain areas are homologous and show similar patterns of activity in human and nonhuman primates. In both groups, cortical activity is modulated by hormones like oxytocin and by the action of certain genes that may affect individual differences in behaviour. Taken together, results suggest that differences in cooperation between the two groups are a matter of degree rather than constituting a fundamental, qualitative distinction.

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Section: The Adaptive Value Of Social Bondsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Adaptations for social cognition in the primate brain

Platt

Seyfarth

Cheney

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Indeed, their pervasive social alliances, with their positive fitness consequences (Silk et al. 2009, 2010), are generally built on kinship. Dispersing males, in contrast, often disperse before they become reproductively active (Lawson Handley and Perrin 2007), making it more difficult to maintain kin associations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postdispersal nepotism in male long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Gerber

Krützen

Ruiter

et al. 2015

Ecology and Evolution

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Cooperative behaviors are promoted by kin selection if the costs to the actor are smaller than the fitness benefits to the recipient, weighted by the coefficient of relatedness. In primates, cooperation occurs primarily among female dyads. Due to male dispersal before sexual maturity in many primate species, however, it is unknown whether there are sufficient opportunities for selective tolerance and occasional coalitionary support for kin selection to favor male nepotistic support. We studied the effect of the presence of male kin on correlates of male reproductive success (residence time, duration of high dominance rank) in non‐natal male long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). We found that “related” (i.e., related at the half‐sibling level or higher) males in a group have a significantly higher probability to remain in the non‐natal group compared to males without relatives. Moreover, males stayed longer in a group when a relative was present at group entry or joined the same group within 3 months upon arrival. Males with co‐residing relatives also maintained a high rank for longer than those without. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a potential nepotistic effect on residence and rank maintenance among non‐natal males in a social system without long‐term alliances.

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“…The relative size of a species' brain or neocortex is correlated with the size of its social network [13] or the presence of coalitions and strong social bonds, including intrasexual pair bonds [8,14]. Indeed, being able to establish and maintain close social bonds is adaptive [15][16][17]. Consequently, mammalian lineages with stable social groups have shown far steeper increases in brain size over time than solitary ones [14,18].…”

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confidence: 99%