Abstract
SummarySocial tolerance is generally treated as a stable, species-specific characteristic. Recent research, however, has questioned this position and emphasized the importance of intraspecific variation. We investigate the temporal stability of social tolerance in four groups of sanctuary-housed chimpanzees over eight years using a commonly employed measure: experimental cofeeding tolerance. We then draw on longitudinal data on the demographic composition of each group to identify the factors associated with cofeeding tolerance. We find appreciable levels of variation in cofeeding tolerance across both groups and years that correspond closely to changes in group-level demographic composition. For example, cofeeding tolerance is lower when there are many females with young infants. These results suggest that social tolerance may be a “responding trait” of chimpanzee sociality, reflecting individual-level behavioral responses to social changes. Additional, experimental research is needed to better model the causal drivers of social tolerance within and among species.
Highlights
Successful group living requires individuals to routinely interact in a relaxed and non-antagonistic manner
Researchers have investigated the relationship between social tolerance and group size (larger groups are associated with higher social tolerance (D’Eath and Keeling, 2003; Dardenne et al, 2013)), social learning (social tolerance enables social learning (Wild et al, 2020; Miller et al, 2014; Forss et al, 2016)), and domestication (domesticated species display higher levels of social tolerance than their wild counterparts (Bradshaw, 2016; Bonanni et al, 2017; Hare, 2017; Hare et al, 2012))
We investigate whether there is temporal variability in group-specific social tolerance using the same cofeeding tolerance assay in the same chimpanzee groups as those described in Cronin et al (Cronin et al, 2014) but longitudinally over the course of 8 years
Summary
Successful group living requires individuals to routinely interact in a relaxed and non-antagonistic manner. Humans are assumed to be characterized by unusually high levels of such social tolerance (Cieri et al, 2014; Burkart et al, 2009; Fuentes, 2004; Pisor and Surbeck, 2019), as we are capable of living in large numbers and in close proximity with one another, as well as cooperating on a daily basis with complete strangers (Chudek and Henrich, 2011; Richerson et al, 2016). Social tolerance has frequently been utilized to characterize and compare entire species and subspecies: for example, the supposedly tolerant social mole rats and intolerant solitary mole rats (Ganem and Bennett, 2004), seasonally tolerant meadow voles and consistently intolerant prairie voles (Lee et al, 2019), tolerant domesticated foxes and intolerant wild foxes (Hare, 2017), or tolerant dogs and intolerant wolves (Hare et al, 2012)
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