Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore 641 108, India.
J Biosci. 2020;45.
In primates, males compete for a mate, which is a non-sharable resource. This makes the conditions less conducive for males to have stable relationships. One such special kind of relationship is a bond where the interactions are reciprocated, equitable and differentiated. Bonds in macaque societies are based on the degree of within-group contest competition for mates which is dependent on the synchronization of female fertile phase and reliability of fertility signals. Species of the Fascicularis group, including Nicobar subspecies, show intermediate reliability in the signals with mild peaks, and studies have shown reciprocity but no differentiation. We conducted a study on a group of wild Nicobar long-tailed macaques Macaca fascicularis umbrosus to understand the existing patterns of male-male relationships. We examined whether there is reciprocity in affiliation among the individuals and whether the rate of affiliation is balanced. We also measured the dominance linearity and steepness in the group to understand the monopolizability of females. We used social network analysis to understand whether the relations are differentiated based on hierarchical position and whether the high-ranking individuals are the most central individuals in the distribution of grooming in the group. We found that there is reciprocity among the males although that is not equitable. There was no rankrelated differentiation of affiliation among the males of the group. Instead, the identities of individuals influenced affiliation patterns. Our results correspond to the existent strong relationships but lack of social bond otherwise found in the Fascicularis group of macaques.
在灵长类动物中，雄性为争夺配偶而竞争，而配偶是一种不可共享的资源。这使得雄性不太可能建立稳定的关系。有一种特殊的关系是相互作用、平等和有区别的关系。猕猴社会中的关系基于群体内对配偶的竞争程度，这取决于雌性的发情期同步和生育信号的可靠性。包括尼科巴亚种在内的 Fascicularis 组的物种在信号中表现出中等程度的可靠性，有轻微的高峰，研究表明存在互惠，但没有差异。我们对一群野生的尼科巴长尾猕猴 Macaca fascicularis umbrosus 进行了研究，以了解雄性之间现存的关系模式。我们检查了个体之间的联系是否存在互惠，以及联系的频率是否平衡。我们还测量了群体中的支配性线性和陡峭度，以了解雌性的可垄断性。我们使用社会网络分析来了解关系是否基于等级地位而有所区分，以及高等级个体是否是群体中梳理分布的最中心个体。我们发现，雄性之间存在互惠，但不平等。群体中的雄性之间没有与等级相关的联系差异。相反，个体的身份影响着联系模式。我们的结果与 Fascicularis 组猕猴中存在的强烈关系但缺乏其他社会联系相对应。
