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Organization of Group Members at Departure Is Driven by Social Structure in Macaca

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Abstract

Researchers have often explained order of progression of group members during joint movement in terms of the influence of ecological pressures but rarely that of social constraints. We studied the order of joining by group members to a movement in semifree-ranging macaques with contrasting social systems: 1 group of Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) and 1 group of rhesus macaques (M. mulatta). We used network metrics to understand roles and associations among individuals. The way the macaques joined a movement reflected the social differences between the species in terms of dominance and kinship. Old and dominant male rhesus macaques were more often at the front of the movement, contrary to the Tonkean macaques, which exhibited no specific order. Moreover, rhesus macaques preferred to join high-ranking or related individuals, whereas Tonkean macaques based associations during joining mostly on sexual relationships with a subgroup of peripheral males.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Pelé, J. Dubosq for the video analyses, P. Uhlrich for technical assistance, and L. G. Halsey and V. Dufour for language editing. The French Research Ministry (ACI cognitique) provided funding for the work.We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

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  1. Ethologie des Primates, Département d’Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    Cedric Sueur & Odile Petit

  2. Centre de Primatologie, Université Louis Pasteur, 67070, Strasbourg, France

    Cedric Sueur & Odile Petit

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  1. Cedric Sueur
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  2. Odile Petit
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Correspondence to Odile Petit.

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Sueur, C., Petit, O. Organization of Group Members at Departure Is Driven by Social Structure in Macaca . Int J Primatol 29, 1085–1098 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-008-9262-9

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