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Social Experience of Captive Livingstone’s Fruit Bats (Pteropus livingstonii)
Stanley, Christina R. Smith, Tessa Welch, Morgan J. Hosie, Charlotte Wormell, Dominic Price, Eluned
Stanley, Christina R.
Smith, Tessa
Welch, Morgan J.
Hosie, Charlotte
Wormell, Dominic
Price, Eluned
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Affiliation
University of Chester; Jersey Zoo
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Publication Date
2020-07-30
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Abstract
Social network analysis has been highlighted as a powerful tool to enhance the evidence-based management of captive-housed species through its ability to quantify the social experience of individuals. We apply this technique to explore the social structure and social roles of 50 Livingstone’s fruit bats (Pteropus livingstonii) housed at Jersey Zoo, Channel Islands, through the observation of associative, affiliative, and aggressive interactions over two data collection periods. We implement binomial mixture modelling and characteristic-based assortment quantification to describe the complexity and organisation of social networks, as well as a multiple regression quadratic assignment procedural (MRQAP) test to analyse the relationship between network types. We examine the effects of individual characteristics (i.e., sex, age, and dominance rank) on social role by fitting models to explain the magnitude of node metrics. Additionally, we utilize a quadratic assignment procedural (QAP) test to assess the temporal stability of social roles over two seasons. Our results indicate that P. livingstonii display a non-random network structure. Observed social networks are positively assorted by age, as well as dominance rank. The frequency of association between individuals correlates with a higher frequency of behavioural interactions, both affiliative and aggressive. Individual social roles remain consistent over ten months. We recommend that, to improve welfare and captive breeding success, relationships between individuals of similar ages and dominance levels should be allowed to persist in this group where possible, and separating individuals that interact frequently in an affiliative context should be avoided.
Citation
Welch, M. J., Smith, T. E., Hosie, C., Wormell, D., Price, E., & Stanley, C. R. (2020). Social Experience of Captive Livingstone’s Fruit Bats (Pteropus livingstonii). Animals, 10(8), 1321. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10081321
Publisher
MDPI
Journal
Animals
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Article
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Series/Report no.
ISSN
2076-2615
EISSN
2076-2615