Homophily in social and demographic traits predict association patterns in female western and mountain gorillas

Young, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8919-2093 and Robbins, MM, 2024. Homophily in social and demographic traits predict association patterns in female western and mountain gorillas. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291 (2035): 20241956. ISSN 0962-8452

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Abstract

Affiliative relationships are a hallmark of social relationships in gregarious mammals, but what drives variation of association patterns when kin are absent remains unknown. Gorillas, where females may disperse multiple times in their lives, provide an interesting counterpoint to female philopatric species to examine the factors influencing variation in association patterns. We examined demographic and social factors that may predict association patterns of female western (Gorilla gorilla gorilla; Loango, Gabon) and mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei; Bwindi, Uganda). We looked at dyadic and individual strength scores of social proximity (37 group-years). For individuals, high dominance rank increased association scores while newly emigrated females had lower scores than resident females. For dyads, higher mean dominance rank and both partners having a dependent infant increased association scores, whereas a partner being an immigrant decreased scores. Furthermore, time-matched analysis of birth and immigration events confirmed the temporal nature of these associations. Overall, female gorilla association patterns show flexibility in strength based on real-time contingencies, namely social and demographic traits. Association patterns in species with female secondary dispersal may be governed by homophily, like that of modern humans. Understanding female gorilla social structure can enhance our knowledge of the evolutionary origins of sociality.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Creators:	Young, C. and Robbins, M.M.
Publisher:	The Royal Society
Date:	November 2024
Volume:	291
Number:	2035
ISSN:	0962-8452
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1098/rspb.2024.1956 DOI 2312610 Other
Rights:	© 2024 the authors. 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.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	04 Dec 2024 16:52
Last Modified:	04 Dec 2024 16:52
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52700

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