Higher social tolerance in wild versus captive common marmosets: the role of interdependence

Social tolerance in a group reflects the balance between within-group competition and interdependence: whereas increased competition leads to a reduction in social tolerance, increased interdependence increases it. Captivity reduces both feeding competition and interdependence and can therefore affe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-01, Vol.11 (1), p.825-10, Article 825
Main Authors: de Oliveira Terceiro, Francisco Edvaldo, Arruda, Maria de Fátima, van Schaik, Carel P., Araújo, Arrilton, Burkart, Judith Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/19
631/601/18
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Callithrix - physiology
Callithrix - psychology
Captivity
Communal breeding
Competition
Cooperative Behavior
Environment
Female
Food
Group Processes
Humanities and Social Sciences
Male
multidisciplinary
Same sex marriage
School districts
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Social Behavior
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Summary:Social tolerance in a group reflects the balance between within-group competition and interdependence: whereas increased competition leads to a reduction in social tolerance, increased interdependence increases it. Captivity reduces both feeding competition and interdependence and can therefore affect social tolerance. In independently breeding primates, social tolerance has been shown to be higher in captivity, indicating a strong effect of food abundance. It is not known, however, how social tolerance in cooperative breeders, with their much higher interdependence, responds to captivity. Here, we therefore compared social tolerance between free-ranging and captive groups in the cooperatively breeding common marmoset and found higher social tolerance (measured as proximity near food, co-feeding, and food sharing) in the wild. Most likely, social tolerance in the wild is higher because interdependence is particularly high in the wild, especially because infant care is more costly there than in captivity. These results indicate that the high social tolerance of these cooperative breeders in captivity is not an artefact, and that captive data may even have underestimated it. They may also imply that the cooperative breeding and foraging of our hominin ancestors, which relied on strong interdependence at multiple levels, was associated with high social tolerance.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-80632-3