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Abstract
Animal sociality is of significant interest to evolutionary and behavioural ecologists, with efforts focused on the patterns, causes and fitness outcomes of social preference. However, individual social patterns are the consequence of both attraction to (preference for) and avoidance of conspecifics. Despite this, social avoidance has received far less attention than social preference. Here, we detail the necessary steps to generate a spatially explicit, iterative null model which can be used to identify non-random social avoidance in longitudinal studies of social animals. We specifically identify and detail parameters which will influence the validity of the model. To test the usability of this model, we applied it to two longitudinal studies of social animals (Eastern water dragons (Intellegama lesueurii) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)) to identify the presence of social avoidances. Using this model allowed us to identify the presence of social avoidances in both species. We hope that the framework presented here inspires interest in addressing this critical gap in our understanding of animal sociality, in turn allowing for a more holistic understanding of social interactions, relationships and structure.
Highlights
Understanding social behaviour is a key component of behavioural and evolutionary ecology
Avoidances can be isolated as instances where the generalized affiliation indices (GAIs) is in the lower fifth percentile
The advantage of our null model is that the spatial information used is of higher resolution, resulting in more robust predictions of random spatial associations and providing greater precision in identifying pairwise avoidances
Summary
Understanding social behaviour is a key component of behavioural and evolutionary ecology. There are multiple ways in which individuals may choose to avoid conspecifics (see box 1), but social avoidance refers to instances in which individuals share space but do not associate. To date, such avoidance behaviour has most frequently been studied in the context of inbreeding avoidance [11], sex segregation [12], avoidance of diseased conspecifics [13,14] and dominance hierarchies [15]. To identify long-term social avoidances, we provide a general framework using a spatially explicit null association model and demonstrate its application to two species (Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and Eastern water dragons (Intellegama lesueurii)) with disparate ecology and social structure
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