Events:
Nov 7-9 at Ohio State University: Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Social Networks
(I’m giving the first talk at 1pm)
Nov 8 Seminar: “Wireless tracking sensor network give novel insights into the (social) life of bats” by Simon Ripperger. (1:00–2:00pm, Room 110, Orton Hall, The Ohio State University). Simon is visiting my lab this fall and joining us this spring to track wild vampire bat social networks (and vampire bat-cattle networks).
Some recent and relevant papers:
The ecology of movement and behaviour: a saturated tripartite network for describing animal contacts. “we relate individual movement trajectories to contact networks through a tripartite network model of individual, space, and time nodes”
Kin selection and allocare in sperm whales. “babysitting rates were correlated with relatedness (rs = 0.4, P < 0.05), and allonurses were, on average, closer maternal relatives of the calves they nursed than were available females who were not allonurses (Δr = 0.14, P = 0.054).”
The “tolerant chimpanzee”—towards the costs and benefits of sociality in female bonobos. “our results support the hypothesis that predicts that females trade off feeding opportunities for safety against male aggression”
Social bonds facilitate cooperative resource sharing in wild chimpanzees.”The strongest predictor of sharing across food types was the presence of enduring and mutually preferred grooming partners, more than harassment, direct signalling, or trade. Moreover, urinary oxytocin levels were higher after the sharing of both individually and jointly acquired resources compared with controls.”
Group and kin recognition via olfactory cues in chimpanzees . “Chimpanzees sniffed … significantly longer at odours from outgroup individuals than those from group members… the duration of sniffing was positively correlated with relatedness”
More than kin: subordinates foster strong bonds with relatives and potential mates in a social bird (the cooperatively breeding purple-crowned fairy-wren). “subordinates formed equally strong social bonds with kin and potential mates (unrelated opposite-sex individuals) while they formed antagonistic relationships with reproductive competitors that offered no kin-selected or mating benefits (unrelated same-sex individuals)”
Resource Ephemerality Drives Social Foraging in Bats. “Miniature GPS-microphone tags allow monitoring wild bats’ movement and interactions. Bats foraging on ephemeral resources move in groups in variable movement patterns. Bats foraging on predictable resources move alone and in fixed movement patterns.”
By-product group benefits of non-kin resource-sharing in vampire “Our study focuses on the contrast in the group estimates between sharing and non-sharing populations. For constant ecological resources, sharing behaviour can increase the sustainable population size, increase the total resource stored in the population, and reduce the average resource required per individual, compared to a non-sharing population.” I do not agree that this group-based modeling approach makes the correct assumptions.
Quantitative Matching of Clutch Size in Reciprocating Hermaphroditic Worms. “worms reciprocate eggs conditionally to the partner’s behavior and adjust the quality of cooperation according to that of their partners”
Carter Lab 