随着年龄的增长,人们对社会行为的变化越来越感兴趣,1,2,3,4,5和社会性对长寿的影响,6,7,8,但目前的知识广泛限于灵长类动物,由统治等级制度构成的社会,或单性别研究。尚不清楚食肉动物的社会衰老模式是如何出现的。非洲狮(Pantheraleo),生活在平等裂变聚变社会中的物种,提供了一个特殊的机会来检查社会老龄化。在费利德身上,狮子在许多基本过程中对物种的依赖是独一无二的,9,10,11,对狮子行为生态学有丰富的知识,10,11,12,13,14包括记录的两性生殖衰老。14,15在野生塞伦盖蒂狮子种群30年的数据中应用空间-社会网络分析,我们表明,性别强烈调节社会衰老和长寿的模式。男女的群体规模都随着年龄的增长而增加,但只有男性经历了相关数字(学位)的显著变化,特别是女性,在中年之前达到顶峰。虽然衰老的女性经历了性别内连通性(强度)和粘合强度(平均强度)的下降,他们在中年时期都达到了男性的顶峰。男性性别间的力量也在中年时期达到顶峰,相反,他们的性别内力量和平均力量在中年时期显着下降。尽管社会联系对两性的生存都很重要,投资差异很大:女性的整体网络连接是长寿的关键,而同伴的数量对男性来说很重要。这些发现说明了野生食肉动物社会衰老的重要潜在影响,并证明了这些差异在两性之间的强烈差异。
There is a growing interest in social behavior change with age,1,2,3,4,5 and the impacts of sociality on longevity,6,7,8 but current knowledge is broadly limited to primates, societies structured by dominance hierarchies, or single-sex studies. It is less clear how social aging patterns emerge in carnivores. The African lion (Panthera leo), a species that lives in egalitarian fission-fusion societies, presents an exceptional opportunity to examine social aging. Across felids,
lions are unique in their dependence on conspecifics for many essential processes,9,10,11 and there is vast knowledge of lion behavioral ecology,10,11,12,13,14 including documented reproductive senescence in both sexes.14,15 Applying spatial-social network analyses across 30 years of data on the wild Serengeti lion population, we show that sex strongly modulates patterns of social aging and longevity. Group size increased with age for both sexes, but only males experienced significant changes in associate numbers (degree), specifically to females, which peaked in mid-life before declining. While aging females experienced declines in intra-sex connectivity (strength) and bond strength (mean strength), they peaked in both to males during mid-life. Male inter-sex strength also peaked in mid-life, while conversely their intra-sex strength and mean strength significantly dipped in mid-life. Although social associations were important for survival in both sexes, the investment diverged significantly: females\' overall network connectivity was key for longevity, while the number of associates was important for males. These findings illustrate important potential effects of social aging in a wild carnivore and demonstrate how these diverge strongly between the sexes.