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Social Structure Affects Initiations of Group Movements but Not Recruitment Success in Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata)

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Abstract

Research on collective movements has often focused on the sociodemographic parameters explaining the success of some individuals as leaders or initiators of collective movements. Several of these studies have shown the influence of social structure, through kinship and affiliative relationships, on the organization of collective movements. However, these studies have been conducted on semi-free-ranging groups of macaques that were not faced with a natural environment and its constraints. In the socially intolerant rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) the success of an initiator correlates with its hierarchical rank, the most dominant individuals being the most successful. We investigated the collective movements of another socially intolerant macaque species, Japanese macaques, in the wild, to assess whether the social structure was still a determinant factor under natural conditions. In line with previous studies of macaques, we found that social structure drove the organization of collective movements. More dominant individuals initiated more collective movements. However, dominance did not affect the success of an initiation, i.e., the number of individuals joining. In addition, kinship strongly constrained the associations observed in females during collective movements. These results reflect the social structure of Japanese macaques, in which strong power asymmetry and kinship relationships constrain the majority of interactions between individuals within the group. Moreover, these results are similar to those observed in semi-free-ranging rhesus macaques and support the hypothesis of an effect of social determinants on collective movements of primates even under natural conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University and the Yakushima Forest Office for their permission to conduct the fieldwork and for their help during this study. We thank Andrew MacIntosh, Alexander Hernandez, and Michael Huffman for the extensive support they provided, and also 2 anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. A. Jacobs was funded by a grant from the French Ministry of Research and Education as well as a grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We also greatly appreciate the financial contribution of the International Journal of Primatology for A. Jacobs’ travel costs to the XXIIIth Congress of the International Primatological Society in Kyoto, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evolutionary Ethology Team, Department of Ecology, Physiology and Ethology, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Université de Strasbourg, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    Armand Jacobs & Odile Petit

  2. CNRS, UMR7178, 67037, Strasbourg, France

    Armand Jacobs & Odile Petit

  3. Primate Research Institute, Department of Ecology and Social Behavior, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan

    Armand Jacobs & Kunio Watanabe

  4. Social Ecology Unit, Free University of Brussels, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Odile Petit

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  1. Armand Jacobs
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  2. Kunio Watanabe
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Correspondence to Odile Petit.

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Jacobs, A., Watanabe, K. & Petit, O. Social Structure Affects Initiations of Group Movements but Not Recruitment Success in Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata). Int J Primatol 32, 1311–1324 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-011-9554-3

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