Relationship between dominance hierarchy steepness and rank-relatedness of benefits in primates

Huang, P, Arlet, ME, Balasubramaniam, KN, Beisner, BA, Bliss-Moreau, E, Brent, LJN, Duboscq, J, García-Nisa, I, Kaburu, SSK ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7456-3269, Kendal, R, Konečná, M, Marty, PR, McCowan, B, Micheletta, J, Ostner, J, Schülke, O, Schino, G and Majolo, B, 2024. Relationship between dominance hierarchy steepness and rank-relatedness of benefits in primates. Behavioral Ecology. ISSN 1045-2249

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Abstract

In animal social groups, the extent to which individuals consistently win agonistic interactions and their ability to monopolize resources represent two core aspects of their competitive regime. However, whether these two aspects are closely correlated within groups has rarely been studied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that hierarchy steepness, which is generally used to represent power differentials between group members, predicts the variation in the distribution of fitness-related benefits (i.e., fecundity, infant survival, mating success and feeding success) in relation to individual dominance ranks. We tested this hypothesis in primate groups using comparative phylogenetic meta-analytical techniques. Specifically, we reviewed published and unpublished studies to extract data on individual dominance ranks, their access to fitness-related benefits and hierarchy steepness. We collected and included in our analysis a total of 153 data points, representing 27 species (including two chimpanzee sub-species). From these, we used four common methods to measure individual dominance ranks and hierarchy steepness, i.e., Dij-based normalized David's scores, randomized Elo-ratings, and David's scores and Elo-ratings estimated in Bayesian frameworks. We found that hierarchy steepness had no effect on the strength of the relationship between dominance rank and access to fitness-related benefits. Our results suggest that hierarchy steepness does not reflect between-group variation in the extent to which individual dominance affects the acquisition of fitness-related benefits in primates. Although the ability to win agonistic encounters is essential, we speculate that other behavioral strategies adopted by individuals may play crucial roles in resource acquisition in animal competitive regimes.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Behavioral Ecology
Creators:	Huang, P., Arlet, M.E., Balasubramaniam, K.N., Beisner, B.A., Bliss-Moreau, E., Brent, L.J.N., Duboscq, J., García-Nisa, I., Kaburu, S.S.K., Kendal, R., Konečná, M., Marty, P.R., McCowan, B., Micheletta, J., Ostner, J., Schülke, O., Schino, G. and Majolo, B.
Publisher:	Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date:	13 August 2024
ISSN:	1045-2249
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1093/beheco/arae066 DOI 2189852 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	14 Aug 2024 14:26
Last Modified:	14 Aug 2024 14:26
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52004

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