Abstract
Recognizing close kin and adjusting one’s behavior accordingly (i.e., favor kin in social interactions, but avoid mating with them) would be an important skill that can increase an animals’ inclusive fitness. Previous studies showed that philopatric female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) bias their social behavior toward maternal and paternal kin. Benefits gained from selecting kin should, however, not only apply to the philopatric sex, for which the enduring spatial proximity facilitates kin discrimination. Given that dispersal is costly, the dispersing sex may benefit from migrating together with their kin or into groups containing kin. In male rhesus macaques, natal migrants bias their spatial proximity toward familiar male kin rather than familiar non-kin. Here, we set up playback experiments to test if males use the acoustic modality to discriminate familiar female kin from non-kin in a non-sexual context. Males responded differently to the presentation of “coo” calls of related and unrelated females, with their reaction depending on the interaction between kin-line (maternal vs paternal kin) and degree of relatedness (r = 0.5, 0.25). Specifically, males were more likely to respond to close kin compared to more distant kin or unrelated females, with this effect being significant in the maternal, but not paternal kin-line. The present study adds to our knowledge of kin recognition abilities of the dispersing sex, suggesting that male rhesus macaques are also able to identify kin using the acoustic modality. We discuss that the probability of response might be affected by the potential benefit of the social partner.
Highlights
Gregarious animals form differentiated social relationships with other group members (Hinde 1976)
Males were more likely to respond to close kin compared to more distant kin or unrelated females, with this effect being significant in the maternal, but not paternal kin-line
Our study tested the ability of the dispersing sex, here male rhesus macaques, to use the acoustic modality as cue to identify familiar maternal and paternal kin of different degrees of relatedness
Summary
Gregarious animals form differentiated social relationships with other group members (Hinde 1976). While most of such relationships are weak, some are very strong, enduring, and are characterized by frequent affiliation, close spatial proximity, tolerance, and agonistic aiding (Silk et al 2010). We used the term kin recognition to describe the animals’ ability to identify, distinguish, and classify kin vs nonkin. The term kin bias is used for any differential treatment of kin and non-kin, and kin discrimination refers to the ability to distinguish (i.e., kin recognition) and respond differently (i.e., kin bias) toward kin and non-kin. The mechanism(s) underlying kin recognition and kin bias can vary among species and may reflect the social environment (Gerlach and Lysiak 2006). For reviews on the underlying mechanisms, see, e.g., Tang-Martinez (2001) and Rendall (2004)
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