Predictability and variability of association patterns in sooty mangabeys

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Social cognition
• Primate ecology

Background:

• Group-living animals navigate complex social environments, requiring sophisticated decision-making.
• Predictability of social associations varies with group cohesion and dynamics.
• Sooty mangabeys, in large cohesive groups, offer a model to study social predictability beyond fission-fusion systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the predictability of social associations in sooty mangabeys at both subgroup and dyadic levels.
• To evaluate the utility of entropy measures in quantifying social complexity in large, cohesive groups.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of association patterns in a large group of sooty mangabeys.
• Assessment of subgroup composition randomness.
• Examination of dyadic associations for patterns of assortative mixing (age, kinship, reproductive state, dominance).

Main Results:

• Subgroup composition in sooty mangabeys is largely random, limiting prediction of bystanders.
• Dyadic associations are predictable, influenced by age, kinship, female reproductive state, and dominance rank.
• Entropy measures alone do not fully capture social predictability in these groups.

Conclusions:

• Sooty mangabeys adapt to unpredictable social environments by relying on predictable dyadic relationships.
• Social complexity in large cohesive groups is incompletely measured by entropy alone.
• Understanding social predictability requires considering both group-level and dyadic-level interactions.