University of Cambridge.
Evol Anthropol. 2012 Jul-Aug;21(4):136-50. doi: 10.1002/evan.21316.
Attempts to explain differences in the size and structure of primate groups have argued that they are a consequence of variation in the intensity of feeding competition caused by contrasts in food distribution. However, although feeding competition can limit the size of female groups, many other factors affect the costs and the benefits of sociality to females and contribute to differences in group size. Moreover, interspecific differences in social relationships between females, in female philopatry, and in kinship between group members appear to be more closely associated with variation in life-history parameters, reproductive strategies, and phylogeny than with contrasts in food distribution or feeding competition. The mismatch between predictions of socioecological theory and observed variation in primate social behavior has led to protracted arguments about the future of primate socioecology. We argue that future attempts to understand the diversity of primate societies need to be based on an approach that explores separate explanations for different components of social organization, combines ecological and phylogenetic information, and integrates research on primates with similar studies of other groups of mammals.
尝试解释灵长类动物群体大小和结构差异的观点认为，这是由食物分布差异引起的觅食竞争强度变化的结果。然而，尽管觅食竞争可能限制雌性群体的大小，但许多其他因素影响着社会性对雌性的成本和收益，并促成了群体大小的差异。此外，雌性之间、雌性亲缘关系以及群体成员之间的种间社会关系的差异似乎与生活史参数、生殖策略和系统发育的变化更密切相关，而不是与食物分布或觅食竞争的差异有关。社会生态理论的预测与灵长类动物社会行为观察到的变异之间的不匹配，导致了关于灵长类动物社会生态学未来的长期争论。我们认为，未来理解灵长类动物社会多样性的尝试需要基于一种方法，该方法探讨社会组织不同组成部分的单独解释，结合生态和系统发育信息，并将灵长类动物的研究与其他类群哺乳动物的类似研究相结合。
