Girish, Siddharth (2022) Emergent patterns of affiliative behaviour in group-living lemurs. Master's Research Project 1, Ecology and Evolution.
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Abstract
Many patterns of affiliative behaviour have been described for lemurs, such as grooming reciprocation, grooming up the hierarchy and grooming others of similar rank. The patterns have been suggested to emerge due to specific cognitive processes in these animals such as recordkeeping of acts given and received, selective attractions towards dominants or similar ranked individuals. However, as more parsimonious alternative, these patterns can be shown to emerge from interactions among individuals and their environment rather than from cognition. In present paper, we investigated the patterns of affiliative behaviour of two species of lemurs that vary in their degree of despotism – Lemur catta and Eulemur rufifrons. We then used an agent-based model based on concepts of self-organization to generate the patterns observed in these two species of lemurs. In our model, called LemGroWorld, individuals tend to group, forage for food, and may perform a dominance interaction when competing for food or space. The outcome of winning or losing in these dominance interactions is self-reinforcing. Our model was able to generate patterns similar to many affiliative patterns observed in the empirical data. Patterns in our model emerged through local interactions and rule of thumb, rather than the specific cognitive processes that are usually thought to underlie these patterns.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Research Project 1) |
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| Supervisor name: | Hemelrijk, C.K. and Seex, L. |
| Degree programme: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Thesis type: | Master's Research Project 1 |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Nov 2022 12:11 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Nov 2022 12:11 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/28978 |
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