Hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) live in multilevel societies characterized by a hierarchy of nested one male units (OMUs), in which leader males and adult females form strong social bonds. Such strong bonds are thought to be the result of males constantly observing and maintaining close contact with the females in his unit to prevent her associating with, and potentially immigrating to, other OMUs. Females, on the other hand, may lack strong bonds with other females due to their reliance on scarce, widely dispersed food resources. Given the release of social and ecological constraints in captive settings, I wanted to determine if social network structure would differ amongst Hamadryas baboons in captivity. Over summer 2021, I conducted observational research on two OMUs at Prospect Park Zoo (PPZ). I conducted 1-hr focal samples, recording behavior and proximity (<10 m) instantaneously every 5 mins with all social interactions collected continuously. From these data, I was able to construct social networks representing percent time spent in spatial proximity (<2 m) and direction of affiliative behaviors (e.g., grooming, playing, and sexual behaviors). Social networks of the OMUs at PPZ were similar, yet different from wild populations in several key aspects. In both PPZ OMUs the percent time the leader male and adult female spent in proximity fell within the range observed in wild populations (18-40%), and the greatest number of affiliative acts were observed between these pairs. Despite spending time in spatial association, no affiliative behaviors were observed between the adults of different OMUs. In contrast to wild populations, adults of both sexes did interact with subadult males, perhaps due to the social/spatial constraints precipitated by a captive setting. This research was a great opportunity to learn more about observational research, and how I may employ these techniques in my future career.
Author: Izzy Hidasi, Anthropology and Psychology
Advisor: Kelsey Ellis, Anthropology
You must be logged in to post a comment.