Disentangling association patterns in fission–fusion societies using African buffalo as an example

摘要: A description of the social network a population aids us in understanding dispersal, spread disease, and genetic structure that population. Many animal populations can be classified as fission–fusion societies, whereby groups form separate over time. Examples discussed literature include ungulates, primates cetaceans (Lott & Minta 1983; Whitehead et al. 1991; Henzi 1997; Christal 1998; Chilvers Corkeron 2002). In this study, we use heuristic simulation model to illustrate potential problems applying traditional techniques association analysis fission– fusion societies propose new index association: fission decision (FDI). We compare conclusions resulting from methods with those FDI using data African buffalo, Syncerus caffer, Kruger National Park. The approach suggested buffalo was spatially temporally structured into four different ‘herds’ adult males only peripherally associated mixed herds. Our method indicated decisions appeared random, but other sex age categories were nonrandom, particularly when included events males. Furthermore, amount time individuals spent together weakly correlated their propensity remain during events. conclude