Abstract
Ageing affects many phenotypic traits, but its consequences for social behaviour have only recently become apparent. Social networks emerge from associations between individuals. The changes in sociality that occur as individuals get older are thus likely to impact network structure, yet this remains unstudied. Here we use empirical data from free-ranging rhesus macaques and an agent-based model to test how age-based changes in social behaviour feed up to influence: (i) an individual's level of indirect connectedness in their network and (ii) overall patterns of network structure. Our empirical analyses revealed that female macaques became less indirectly connected as they aged for some, but not for all network measures examined. This suggests that indirect connectivity is affected by ageing, and that ageing animals can remain well integrated in some social contexts. Surprisingly, we did not find evidence for a relationship between age distribution and the structure of female macaque networks. We used an agent-based model to gain further understanding of the link between age-based differences in sociality and global network structure, and under which circumstances global effects may be detectable. Overall, our results suggest a potentially important and underappreciated role of age in the structure and function of animal collectives, which warrants further investigation. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 20220061 |
Journal | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
Volume | 378 |
Issue number | 1874 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 10 2023 |
Keywords
- ageing
- agent-based model
- indirect connections
- rhesus macaque
- social behaviour
- social network
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
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Supplementary material from "Ageing in a collective: the impact of ageing individuals on social network structure"
Siracusa, E. R. (Creator), Pereira, A. S. (Creator), Brask, J. B. (Creator), Negron-Del Valle, J. E. (Creator), Phillips, D. (Creator), Platt, M. L. (Creator), Higham, J. P. (Creator), Snyder-Mackler, N. (Creator), Brent, L. J. N. (Creator), Pereira, A. S. (Creator), Platt, M. L. (Creator), Snyder-Mackler, N. (Creator) & Brent, L. J. N. (Creator), The Royal Society, 2023
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6402374, https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Ageing_in_a_collective_the_impact_of_ageing_individuals_on_social_network_structure_/6402374
Dataset
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Supplementary material from "Ageing in a collective: the impact of ageing individuals on social network structure"
Siracusa, E. R. (Creator), Pereira, A. S. (Creator), Brask, J. B. (Creator), Negron-Del Valle, J. E. (Creator), Phillips, D. (Creator), Platt, M. L. (Creator), Higham, J. P. (Creator), Snyder-Mackler, N. (Creator), Brent, L. J. N. (Creator), Pereira, A. S. (Creator), Platt, M. L. (Creator), Snyder-Mackler, N. (Creator) & Brent, L. J. N. (Creator), The Royal Society, 2023
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6402374.v1, https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Ageing_in_a_collective_the_impact_of_ageing_individuals_on_social_network_structure_/6402374/1
Dataset