Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons

In many social mammals, females who form close, differentiated bonds with others experience greater offspring survival and longevity. We still know little, however, about how females' relationships are structured within the social group, or whether connections beyond the level of the dyad have...

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Main Authors: Cheney, Dorothy L., Silk, Joan B., Seyfarth, Robert M.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2016
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4968471/
id pubmed-4968471
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-49684712016-08-04 Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons Cheney, Dorothy L. Silk, Joan B. Seyfarth, Robert M. Biology (Whole Organism) In many social mammals, females who form close, differentiated bonds with others experience greater offspring survival and longevity. We still know little, however, about how females' relationships are structured within the social group, or whether connections beyond the level of the dyad have any adaptive value. Here, we apply social network analysis to wild baboons in order to evaluate the comparative benefits of dyadic bonds against several network measures. Results suggest that females with strong dyadic bonds also showed high eigenvector centrality, a measure of the extent to which an individual's partners are connected to others in the network. Eigenvector centrality was a better predictor of offspring survival than dyadic bond strength. Previous results have shown that female baboons derive significant fitness benefits from forming close, stable bonds with several other females. Results presented here suggest that these benefits may be further augmented if a female's social partners are themselves well connected to others within the group rather than being restricted to a smaller clique. The Royal Society 2016-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4968471/ /pubmed/27493779 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160255 Text en © 2016 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Cheney, Dorothy L.
Silk, Joan B.
Seyfarth, Robert M.
spellingShingle Cheney, Dorothy L.
Silk, Joan B.
Seyfarth, Robert M.
Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
author_facet Cheney, Dorothy L.
Silk, Joan B.
Seyfarth, Robert M.
author_sort Cheney, Dorothy L.
title Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
title_short Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
title_full Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
title_fullStr Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
title_full_unstemmed Network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
title_sort network connections, dyadic bonds and fitness in wild female baboons
description In many social mammals, females who form close, differentiated bonds with others experience greater offspring survival and longevity. We still know little, however, about how females' relationships are structured within the social group, or whether connections beyond the level of the dyad have any adaptive value. Here, we apply social network analysis to wild baboons in order to evaluate the comparative benefits of dyadic bonds against several network measures. Results suggest that females with strong dyadic bonds also showed high eigenvector centrality, a measure of the extent to which an individual's partners are connected to others in the network. Eigenvector centrality was a better predictor of offspring survival than dyadic bond strength. Previous results have shown that female baboons derive significant fitness benefits from forming close, stable bonds with several other females. Results presented here suggest that these benefits may be further augmented if a female's social partners are themselves well connected to others within the group rather than being restricted to a smaller clique.
publisher The Royal Society
publishDate 2016
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4968471/
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