TY - JOUR
T1 - Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social
AU - Albery, Gregory F.
AU - Clutton-Brock, Tim H.
AU - Morris, Alison
AU - Morris, Sean
AU - Pemberton, Josephine M.
AU - Nussey, Daniel H.
AU - Firth, Josh A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank NatureScot and its predecessors for permission to work on the Isle of Rum NNR. The field project has been supported by grants mainly from the UK NERC with some additional funding from BBSRC, the Royal Society and ERC. We thank all who have contributed to the maintenance of the project over time, especially L. Kruuk. We thank multiple dedicated field workers who have contributed to field data collection, especially F. Guinness, who collected the first 20 years of census data. G.F.A. was funded by NSF grant number 1414296, and by a Bruce McEwen Career Development Fellowship from the NIH Animal Models for the Social Dimensions of Health and Aging Research Network (NIH/NIH R24 AG065172). J.A.F. was supported by BBSRC (BB/S009752/1) and funding from NERC (NE/S010335/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2022/8/1
Y1 - 2022/8/1
N2 - Social relationships are important to many aspects of animals’ lives, and an individual’s connections may change over the course of their lifespan. Currently, it is unclear whether social connectedness declines within individuals as they age, and what the underlying mechanisms might be, so the role of age in structuring animal social systems remains unresolved, particularly in non-primates. Here we describe senescent declines in social connectedness using 46 years of data in a wild, individually monitored population of a long-lived mammal (European red deer, Cervus elaphus). Applying a series of spatial and social network analyses, we demonstrate that these declines occur because of within-individual changes in social behaviour, with correlated changes in spatial behaviour (smaller home ranges and movements to lower-density, lower-quality areas). These findings demonstrate that within-individual socio-spatial behavioural changes can lead older animals in fission–fusion societies to become less socially connected, shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring wild animal populations.
AB - Social relationships are important to many aspects of animals’ lives, and an individual’s connections may change over the course of their lifespan. Currently, it is unclear whether social connectedness declines within individuals as they age, and what the underlying mechanisms might be, so the role of age in structuring animal social systems remains unresolved, particularly in non-primates. Here we describe senescent declines in social connectedness using 46 years of data in a wild, individually monitored population of a long-lived mammal (European red deer, Cervus elaphus). Applying a series of spatial and social network analyses, we demonstrate that these declines occur because of within-individual changes in social behaviour, with correlated changes in spatial behaviour (smaller home ranges and movements to lower-density, lower-quality areas). These findings demonstrate that within-individual socio-spatial behavioural changes can lead older animals in fission–fusion societies to become less socially connected, shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring wild animal populations.
U2 - 10.1038/s41559-022-01817-9
DO - 10.1038/s41559-022-01817-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134619162
SN - 2397-334X
VL - 6
SP - 1231
EP - 1238
JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution
JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution
ER -