PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The social system of animals involves a complex interplay between physiology, natural history, and the environment. Long relied upon discrete categorizations of \"social\" and \"solitary\" inhibit our capacity to understand species and their interactions with the world around them. Here, we use a globally distributed camera trapping dataset to test the drivers of aggregating into groups in a species complex (martens and relatives, family Mustelidae, Order Carnivora) assumed to be obligately solitary. We use a simple quantification, the probability of being detected in a group, that was applied across our globally derived camera trap dataset. Using a series of binomial generalized mixed-effects models applied to a dataset of 16,483 independent detections across 17 countries on four continents we test explicit hypotheses about potential drivers of group formation. We observe a wide range of probabilities of being detected in groups within the solitary model system, with the probability of aggregating in groups varying by more than an order of magnitude. We demonstrate that a species\' context-dependent proclivity toward aggregating in groups is underpinned by a range of resource-related factors, primarily the distribution of resources, with increasing patchiness of resources facilitating group formation, as well as interactions between environmental conditions (resource constancy/winter severity) and physiology (energy storage capabilities). The wide variation in propensities to aggregate with conspecifics observed here highlights how continued failure to recognize complexities in the social behaviors of apparently solitary species limits our understanding not only of the individual species but also the causes and consequences of group formation.
摘要：
动物的社会系统涉及生理之间复杂的相互作用，自然史,和环境。长期依赖“社会”和“孤独”的离散分类抑制了我们理解物种及其与周围世界相互作用的能力。这里,我们使用一个全球分布式的相机捕获数据集来测试在一个物种复合体中聚集成组的驱动因素(martens和亲属，Mustelidae家族,食肉目）被认为是强制性的。我们使用一个简单的量化，在一个群体中被检测到的概率，应用于我们全球衍生的相机陷阱数据集。使用一系列二项广义混合效应模型，应用于四大洲17个国家的16,483个独立检测数据集，我们测试了有关群体形成的潜在驱动因素的明确假设。我们在孤立模型系统中观察到广泛的群体被检测到的概率，群体聚集的概率变化超过一个数量级。我们证明了物种的背景依赖性倾向于群体聚集是由一系列资源相关因素支撑的，主要是资源分配，随着资源的日益分散，促进了群体的形成，以及环境条件(资源恒定性/冬季严重程度)和生理(储能能力)之间的相互作用。在这里观察到的与物种聚集的倾向的广泛差异凸显了如何继续未能认识到明显孤独的物种的社会行为的复杂性不仅限制了我们对单个物种的理解，而且限制了对群体形成的原因和后果的理解。
