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Consequences of group fission for the patterns of relatedness among rhesus macaques
Author(s) -
WIDDIG A.,
NÜRNBERG P.,
BERCOVITCH F. B.,
TREFILOV A.,
BERARD J. B.,
KESSLER M. J.,
SCHMIDTKE J.,
STREICH W. J.,
KRAWCZAK M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2006.03039.x
Subject(s) - biology , kinship , inclusive fitness , daughter , group (periodic table) , group living , fission , kin recognition , kin selection , social group , demography , evolutionary biology , ecology , psychology , social psychology , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , sociology , political science , neutron , law
When mammalian social groups exceed their optimal size, they often tend to split. In view of the potential evolutionary benefits, it should be more advantageous for animals to stay with kin, rather than nonkin, during such fission events. In the present study, the spontaneous fission of two social groups, R and S, of rhesus macaques living on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, provided the opportunity to compare the kinship structure of the corresponding parent and daughter groups, using information on both maternal and paternal relatedness. In both instances, maternal half‐siblings and pairs of animals from the same family were significantly more prevalent in the fission products than in the parent group. During the split of group R, significantly more paternal half‐siblings stayed in the remnants of the parent group than joined the seceding group. Our findings are compatible with previous behavioural studies demonstrating that female primates bias their social behaviour more to maternal than to paternal kin, but that both types of half‐siblings prefer each other more than unrelated animals. It remains to be clarified by future research, however, whether the observed co‐segregation of paternal half‐sibs in our study reflects active choice or is a by‐product of the group‐specific kin structures, prior to fission.