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Kinship and Intragroup Social Dynamics in Two Sympatric African Colobus Species

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Abstract

Kinship has been described as a major factor shaping primates’ social dynamics, with individuals biasing their affiliative interactions to their related counterparts. However, it has also been demonstrated that, under certain circumstances, social bonding can be established in the absence of kin. The fact that Colobus polykomos (western black-and-white colobus) and Procolobus badius temminckii (Temminck’s red colobus) often live in sympatry (subject to the same ecological/anthropogenic pressures) but exhibit contrasting social systems makes them good models to test which factors shape their social systems. We investigated the influence of kinship on intragroup social dynamics of one focal group of each species present in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. Between October 2008 and June 2009 we used focal sampling to collect information on the individuals’ nearest neighbors and ad libitum sampling to collect data on intragroup social interactions. We estimated pairwise relatedness using fecal DNA from 9 individuals of Colobus polykomos and 15 individuals of Procolobus badius temminckii genotyped at 15 microsatellite loci. We found that, in the focal group of Colobus polykomos, individuals showed no preference to interact or be spatially closer to related partners. Moreover, mainly unrelated females and related males composed the focal group of Procolobus badius temminckii but grooming was most frequent among female dyads and only rarely involved male dyads. We conclude that kinship is not an important factor determining the social bonding in either study species, suggesting that other factors, e.g., anthropogenic, ecological, may be at play shaping these groups’ social bonding.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financed by a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia grant (SFRH/BPD/87396/2012) to T. Minhós. We thank Institute of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP) in Guinea-Bissau for facilitating fieldwork in Guinea-Bissau and providing logistical support. We thank Forestry and Fauna Department (DGFC) and Action for Development (AD) for field assistance and permits and National Institute for Studies and Research (INEP) and Gabinete de Planificação Costeira for providing us with the land cover maps. We sincerely thank Mutaro Galiza, Mamadu (Catomboi), and Saido Kuiaté for the great assistance in the field, helping in the data collection and the local community for welcoming us. We also thank Maria Ferreira da Silva and Rui Sá for the great discussions and their insights across all stages of the work; K. Hockings, C. Casanova A. Barata, and M. Carmo for the great insights during fieldwork; and J. Carvalho for the help with statistical analyses. Finally, we thank the Editor-in-Chief Dr Joanna M Setchell, the Associate Editor James Higham, two anonymous reviewers, and D. Starin, K. Hockings, and R. Xavier for the helpful comments that improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas (CAPP), Instituto Superior de Ciência Sociais e Políticas, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663, Lisboa, Portugal

    Tania Minhós

  2. Instituto Gulbenkian da Ciência (IGC), 2780-156, Oeiras, Portugal

    Tania Minhós

  3. Organisms and Environment Division, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, CF10 3AX, Cardiff, UK

    Tania Minhós & Michael W. Bruford

  4. Departamento de Antropologia, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1069-061, Lisboa, Portugal

    Cláudia Sousa

  5. Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA), 1649-026, Lisboa, Portugal

    Cláudia Sousa

  6. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, C2-P3 Campo Grande, Lisboa, Portugal

    Luis M. Vicente

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  1. Tania Minhós
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Minhós, T., Sousa, C., Vicente, L.M. et al. Kinship and Intragroup Social Dynamics in Two Sympatric African Colobus Species. Int J Primatol 36, 871–886 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9859-8

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