Predicting fate from early connectivity in a social network

In the long-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis), a long-lived tropical bird, early connectivity within a social network predicts male success an average of 4.8 years later. Long-tailed manakins have an unusual lek mating system in which pairs of unrelated males, at the top of complex overlapping t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2007-06, Vol.104 (26), p.10910-10914
Main Author: McDonald, David B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Factors
Animal behavior
Animal communication
Animal reproduction
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Biological Sciences
Birds
Chiroxiphia linearis
Connectivity
Female animals
Hyperlinks
Logistic regression
Male
Male animals
Mating behavior
Modeling
Ornithology
Plumage
Social interaction
Social networking
Social Support
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Summary:In the long-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis), a long-lived tropical bird, early connectivity within a social network predicts male success an average of 4.8 years later. Long-tailed manakins have an unusual lek mating system in which pairs of unrelated males, at the top of complex overlapping teams of as many as 15 males, cooperate for obligate dual-male song and dance courtship displays. For as long as 8 years before forming stable "alpha-beta" partnerships, males interact with many other males in complex, temporally dynamic social networks. "Information centrality" is a network connectivity metric that accounts for indirect as well as shortest (geodesic) paths among interactors. The odds that males would rise socially rose by a factor of five for each one-unit increase in their early information centrality. Connectivity of males destined to rise did not change over time but increased in males that failed to rise socially. The results suggest that network connectivity is important for young males (ages 1-6) but less so for older males of high status (ages 10-15) and that it is difficult to explain present success without reference to social history.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0701159104