Abstract
One of the most fundamental questions in behavioural biology is why societies can persist for a long period of time. While researchers in animal behaviour have been hindered by a lack of an aggregate measure (such as social mobility) to quantify the dynamics of animal societies, researchers in social sciences have been challenged by the complexity and diversity of human societies. As a result, direct empirical evidence is still lacking for the hypothesized causal relationship between social mobility and social stability. Here we attempt to fill the void by examining a much simpler society in the Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana), which we have tracked for 30 consecutive years. By testing two group-level hypotheses based on benefit-cost analysis and social stratification, we show the first quantitative evidence that an annual 2-to-1 stay/change ratio in the hierarchy with a 3-to-1 upward/downward ratio in intragenerational social mobility provides a substantive expected benefit for adult members to stay in the group and wait for their chances to advance. Furthermore, using a Markov transition matrix constructed from empirical data, we demonstrate that the 3-to-1 upward/downward ratio could lead to long-term structural stability in Tibetan macaque society.
Highlights
One of the most fundamental questions in behavioural biology is why societies can persist for a long period of time
It is unfortunate that an interdisciplinary barrier has hampered free information exchange between social and biological sciences, resulting in a situation where researchers in animal behaviour somehow overlook the importance of social mobility on the one hand, whereas researchers in social sciences are challenged by the complexity and diversity of human society on the other
The Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana), in particular, is one of the best primate subjects to investigate the relationship between social mobility and social stability for several reasons
Summary
One of the most fundamental questions in behavioural biology is why societies can persist for a long period of time. One of the most fundamental yet challenging questions in the study of animal behaviour and social evolution is why many animal societies can persist for a long period of time Why, phrasing it differently, do many social animals choose to stay in the same groups for years? This question has been traditionally addressed by arguing that social living brings more benefit (such as a reduced predation risk) than cost (such as higher rates of parasites and diseases and intensified competition)[1] Such benefit-cost analyses, while presenting a strong adaptive logic in the choice of behaviour for individuals, do not directly answer why a particular society can persist in the long run. The group has experienced four permanent fission events over the 30-year period (unpublished data), which indicate a group-level process that can perpetuate the long-term sustainability of the macaque society in the wild
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