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Costs and benefits of group living in primates: an energetic perspective

A. Catherine Markham, Laurence R. Gesquiere
Published 3 July 2017.DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0239
A. Catherine Markham
Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
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  • For correspondence: catherine.markham@stonybrook.edu
Laurence R. Gesquiere
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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Abstract

Group size is a fundamental component of sociality, and has important consequences for an individual's fitness as well as the collective and cooperative behaviours of the group as a whole. This review focuses on how the costs and benefits of group living vary in female primates as a function of group size, with a particular emphasis on how competition within and between groups affects an individual's energetic balance. Because the repercussions of chronic energetic stress can lower an animal's fitness, identifying the predictors of energetic stress has important implications for understanding variation in survivorship and reproductive success within and between populations. Notably, we extend previous literature on this topic by discussing three physiological measures of energetic balance—glucocorticoids, c-peptides and thyroid hormones. Because these hormones can provide clear signals of metabolic states and processes, they present an important complement to field studies of spatial and temporal changes in food availability. We anticipate that their further application will play a crucial role in elucidating the adaptive significance of group size in different social and ecological contexts.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.

Footnotes

  • One contribution of 13 to a theme issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.

  • Accepted November 7, 2016.
  • © 2017 The Author(s)
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19 August 2017
Volume 372, issue 1727
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: 372 (1727)
  • Table of Contents
Theme issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’ compiled and edited by Frank Seebacher and Jens Krause

Keywords

c-peptides
daily travel
ecological constraints model
glucocorticoids
group size
thyroid hormones
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Costs and benefits of group living in primates: an energetic perspective
A. Catherine Markham, Laurence R. Gesquiere
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2017 372 20160239; DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0239. Published 3 July 2017
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Review article:

Costs and benefits of group living in primates: an energetic perspective

A. Catherine Markham, Laurence R. Gesquiere
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2017 372 20160239; DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0239. Published 3 July 2017

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