Tang Zifei, Wang Xi, Wu Mingyang, Chen Shiwang, Li Jinhua
School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavior Ecology, Hefei 230601, China.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Mar 19;11(3):876. doi: 10.3390/ani11030876.
Animals on the move often communicate with each other through some specific postures. Previous studies have shown that social interaction plays a role in communication process. However, it is not clear whether the affinity of group members can affect visual communication. We studied a group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques () at Huangshan Mountain, China, and answered whether and how social centrality or relatives matter in visual signals during group movement using Tobit regression modeling. All individuals emitted the signals of back-glances and pauses in collective movement. The emission of two signals decreased with the number of participants increased. The back-glance and pause signals emitted by the participating individuals were stronger as the position moved backward in the group. Sex, age, and rank had no significant influence on back-glance and pause signals. Individuals with higher social centrality would emit more pause signals, but social centrality had no effect on the back-glance signal. Individuals with more relatives in the group had more back-glance signals, but this had no effect on the pause signal. This study verifies that social centrality and the number of relatives have effects on visual signals in Tibetan macaques. We provide insights into the relationship between communication behaviors and group cooperation in social animals.
移动中的动物常常通过一些特定姿势相互交流。先前的研究表明，社会互动在交流过程中发挥作用。然而，群体成员之间的亲密程度是否会影响视觉交流尚不清楚。我们在中国黄山研究了一群自由放养的藏猕猴（ ），并使用Tobit回归模型回答了在群体移动过程中社会中心性或亲属关系在视觉信号中是否重要以及如何重要的问题。所有个体在集体移动中都会发出回头瞥和停顿的信号。随着参与者数量的增加，这两种信号的发出频率降低。随着在群体中的位置向后移动，参与个体发出的回头瞥和停顿信号更强。性别、年龄和等级对回头瞥和停顿信号没有显著影响。社会中心性较高的个体会发出更多的停顿信号，但社会中心性对回头瞥信号没有影响。群体中亲属较多的个体有更多的回头瞥信号，但这对停顿信号没有影响。本研究证实了社会中心性和亲属数量对藏猕猴的视觉信号有影响。我们为社会动物的交流行为与群体合作之间的关系提供了见解。
