In some non-human primates, infants function as a social tool that can bridge relationships among group members. Infants are a desired commodity for group members, and mothers control access to them. The biological ma...In some non-human primates, infants function as a social tool that can bridge relationships among group members. Infants are a desired commodity for group members, and mothers control access to them. The biological market theory suggests that grooming is widespread and represents a commodity that can be exchanged for infant handling. As a limited resource, however, the extent to which infants are interchanged between mothers(females with an infant) and non-mothers(potential handlers,females without an infant) remains unclear. In this study, we collected behavioral data to investigate the relationship between grooming and infant handling in free-ranging Tibetan macaques(Macaca thibetana)at Mt. Huangshan, China. Our results showed that females with infants received more grooming than females without infants. After her infant was handled,mother females received more grooming than they did during daily grooming interactions. However, with the increasing number of infants within the social group, both the grooming that mothers received and the grooming that non-mothers invested for handling infants decreased. We also found that non-mothers invested more time in grooming to gain access to younger infants than older infants. Our results provide evidence that infants are social commodities for both mother and non-mother females. Mothers use infants for obtain grooming and non-mothers use grooming to gain access to infants. The current study implies a bidirectional and complex interchange pattern between grooming and infant handling to compensate for the dyadic grooming disparity in non-human primates.展开更多
Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence j...Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence juvenile social play. We examined the relationships among play behaviors, candidate play signals, and play bout termination in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) during juvenile and infant social play to characterize the species play style. As Tibetan macaques are despotic and live in groups with strict linear dominance hierarchies and infrequent reconciliation, we predicted that play would be at risk of misinterpretation by both the individuals engaged in the play bout and by those watching, possibly leading to injury of the players. Animals living in such societies might need to frequently and clearly signal playful intent to play partners and other group members to avoid aggressive outcomes. We gathered video data on 21 individually-identified juvenile and infant macaques (one month to five years of age) from the Valley of the Wild Monkeys, Mt. Huangshan, China. We used all-occurrence sampling to record play behaviors and candidate play signals based on an ethogram. We predicted that play groups would use multiple candidate play signals in a variety of contexts and in association with the number of audience members in proximity to the players and play bout length. In the 283 playful interactions we scored,juvenile and infant macaques used multiple body and facial candidate play signals. Our data showed that juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques use a versatile repertoire of play behaviors and signals to sustain play展开更多
Self-directed behavior(SDB) is characterized as an indicator of anxiety, frustration and stress in nonhuman primates. In this study, we collected self-directed behavior data from one group of free-ranging Tibetan maca...Self-directed behavior(SDB) is characterized as an indicator of anxiety, frustration and stress in nonhuman primates. In this study, we collected self-directed behavior data from one group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques(Macaca thibetana) at Mt. Huangshan, China(September 2012–May 2013) using a combination of behavioral sampling methods including focal animal sampling, behavioral sampling, continuous sampling and instantaneous sampling. Our results showed that females engaged in significantly higher rates of self-directed behavior when they were in proximity to dominant individuals compared to subordinate ones. Conflict losers significantly increased their SDB rates after agonistic episodes, indicating that SDB might also serve as an index of anxiety in M. thibetana. We further found that females significantly increased their SDB rates when focal individual was proximity to weakly affiliation relationship higher rank members than to strongly affiliation relationship higher rank members. If conflicts were not reconciled, the postconflict SDB rates of losers were higher when they stayed with strongly affiliation opponents; if conflicts were reconciled, victims of strongly affiliation relationships opponents engaged in more SDB rates before reconciliation than after reconciliation, while victims of moderately affiliation relationships opponents did not engaged in more SDB rates before reconciliation than after reconciliation. We conclude that both of dominance rank and affiliation relationships might both influence the SDB rates of female Tibetan macaques significantly, suggesting that SDB is not only an index of anxiety in Tibetan macaques, but also can provide a new insight into evaluation of social relationships between individuals.展开更多
Though females are generally more selective in mate choice, males may also benefit from mate choice if male reproductivesuccess is limited by factors other than simply the number of female mates, and if females differ...Though females are generally more selective in mate choice, males may also benefit from mate choice if male reproductivesuccess is limited by factors other than simply the number of female mates, and if females differ in short-term reproductivepotential. We studied male mate choice in a free-ranging troop of Tibetan macaques Macaco thibetana at Mt. Huangshan,China, from August 2007 to April 2008. We employed focal animal sampling and all occurrence sampling to record sexual relatedbehaviors. Eight adult females were divided into three female quality categories according to the females' age, rank and parity.Using male mating effort as a proxy for male mate choice, we found that males do distinguish female quality and showtime-variant mating strategies. Specifically, females with dominant rank, high fecundity, and middle age attracted significantlymore males. Our results suggest that female short-term reproductive potential appears to be an important variable in determiningmale mating effort. Male Tibetan macaques do exercise mate choice for higher quality females as well as reduce useless reproductivecost, which is consistent with the direct benefits theory of mate展开更多
Soil microorganisms play pivotal roles in element biogeochemical cycling and ecological functions in wetland ecosystem,which may affect global climate change.Variations in biotic and abiotic factors are known to affec...Soil microorganisms play pivotal roles in element biogeochemical cycling and ecological functions in wetland ecosystem,which may affect global climate change.Variations in biotic and abiotic factors are known to affect soil microbial diversity,community structure and the corresponding functions.However,the relative importance of these biotic and abiotic factors on wetland soil microbial diversity and community structure on the QinghaiTibet Plateau remains poorly understood.In this study,we explored soil bacterial and fungal diversity and composition of five wetlands under two vegetation types(herbs vs Hippophae thibetana)in Changdu area,Tibet,through Illumina high throughput sequencing analysis of 16S rRNA for bacteria and internal transcribed spacer(ITS)for fungi.Results showed that soil bacterial alpha diversity was higher in H.thibetana dominated wetlands and was significantly and positively correlated with soil pH.No difference was detected in the soil fungal alpha diversity among samples and between vegetation types.The dominant soil bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria,Actinobacteria,Acidobacteria,and Firmicutes.While Ascomycota,Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota were the dominant fungal phyla.Soil bacterial and fungal community structures were significantly distinct by vegetation types.In addition,redundancy analysis indicated that soil pH was the key factor shaping soil bacterial community structure.Nevertheless,soil p H showed no effect on fungal community.Instead,soil dissolved organic carbon was the major factor contributing to soil fungal community structure.This study emphasized that wetland soil microbial communities were distinct by vegetation types and the driving factors of microbial beta diversity between bacterial and fungal community were also different in wetlands in Changdu area.展开更多
基金supported in part by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31772475 31672307+1 种基金31401981 31372215)
文摘In some non-human primates, infants function as a social tool that can bridge relationships among group members. Infants are a desired commodity for group members, and mothers control access to them. The biological market theory suggests that grooming is widespread and represents a commodity that can be exchanged for infant handling. As a limited resource, however, the extent to which infants are interchanged between mothers(females with an infant) and non-mothers(potential handlers,females without an infant) remains unclear. In this study, we collected behavioral data to investigate the relationship between grooming and infant handling in free-ranging Tibetan macaques(Macaca thibetana)at Mt. Huangshan, China. Our results showed that females with infants received more grooming than females without infants. After her infant was handled,mother females received more grooming than they did during daily grooming interactions. However, with the increasing number of infants within the social group, both the grooming that mothers received and the grooming that non-mothers invested for handling infants decreased. We also found that non-mothers invested more time in grooming to gain access to younger infants than older infants. Our results provide evidence that infants are social commodities for both mother and non-mother females. Mothers use infants for obtain grooming and non-mothers use grooming to gain access to infants. The current study implies a bidirectional and complex interchange pattern between grooming and infant handling to compensate for the dyadic grooming disparity in non-human primates.
基金supported by grants from Debra and Arlen Prentice,Central Washington University School of Graduate Studies and Research,National Science Foundation(NSF)International Research Experiences for Students(IRES)(OISE1065589)National Science Foundation of China(31372215,31672307)
文摘Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence juvenile social play. We examined the relationships among play behaviors, candidate play signals, and play bout termination in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) during juvenile and infant social play to characterize the species play style. As Tibetan macaques are despotic and live in groups with strict linear dominance hierarchies and infrequent reconciliation, we predicted that play would be at risk of misinterpretation by both the individuals engaged in the play bout and by those watching, possibly leading to injury of the players. Animals living in such societies might need to frequently and clearly signal playful intent to play partners and other group members to avoid aggressive outcomes. We gathered video data on 21 individually-identified juvenile and infant macaques (one month to five years of age) from the Valley of the Wild Monkeys, Mt. Huangshan, China. We used all-occurrence sampling to record play behaviors and candidate play signals based on an ethogram. We predicted that play groups would use multiple candidate play signals in a variety of contexts and in association with the number of audience members in proximity to the players and play bout length. In the 283 playful interactions we scored,juvenile and infant macaques used multiple body and facial candidate play signals. Our data showed that juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques use a versatile repertoire of play behaviors and signals to sustain play
基金supported by the National Science Foundation of China(31172106,31372215)the Program of University Innovation Team of Anhui Province(TD200703)+1 种基金the Specialized Research Fund for the Master’s Program of Higher Education(01001770-10117700618)the Science Foundation of Anhui Province(1408085QC56)
文摘Self-directed behavior(SDB) is characterized as an indicator of anxiety, frustration and stress in nonhuman primates. In this study, we collected self-directed behavior data from one group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques(Macaca thibetana) at Mt. Huangshan, China(September 2012–May 2013) using a combination of behavioral sampling methods including focal animal sampling, behavioral sampling, continuous sampling and instantaneous sampling. Our results showed that females engaged in significantly higher rates of self-directed behavior when they were in proximity to dominant individuals compared to subordinate ones. Conflict losers significantly increased their SDB rates after agonistic episodes, indicating that SDB might also serve as an index of anxiety in M. thibetana. We further found that females significantly increased their SDB rates when focal individual was proximity to weakly affiliation relationship higher rank members than to strongly affiliation relationship higher rank members. If conflicts were not reconciled, the postconflict SDB rates of losers were higher when they stayed with strongly affiliation opponents; if conflicts were reconciled, victims of strongly affiliation relationships opponents engaged in more SDB rates before reconciliation than after reconciliation, while victims of moderately affiliation relationships opponents did not engaged in more SDB rates before reconciliation than after reconciliation. We conclude that both of dominance rank and affiliation relationships might both influence the SDB rates of female Tibetan macaques significantly, suggesting that SDB is not only an index of anxiety in Tibetan macaques, but also can provide a new insight into evaluation of social relationships between individuals.
基金funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30570237)Outstanding Youth Foundation of Anhui (No.040443070)+1 种基金Technological Innovation team of Anhui Education Bureau (TD200703)Talent Development Foundation of Anhui, Academic Innovation team of Anhui University
文摘Though females are generally more selective in mate choice, males may also benefit from mate choice if male reproductivesuccess is limited by factors other than simply the number of female mates, and if females differ in short-term reproductivepotential. We studied male mate choice in a free-ranging troop of Tibetan macaques Macaco thibetana at Mt. Huangshan,China, from August 2007 to April 2008. We employed focal animal sampling and all occurrence sampling to record sexual relatedbehaviors. Eight adult females were divided into three female quality categories according to the females' age, rank and parity.Using male mating effort as a proxy for male mate choice, we found that males do distinguish female quality and showtime-variant mating strategies. Specifically, females with dominant rank, high fecundity, and middle age attracted significantlymore males. Our results suggest that female short-term reproductive potential appears to be an important variable in determiningmale mating effort. Male Tibetan macaques do exercise mate choice for higher quality females as well as reduce useless reproductivecost, which is consistent with the direct benefits theory of mate
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(42077038)Doctoral Fund of Southwest University of Science and Technology(20zx7134)Sichuan Science and Technology Support Program(2020YFS0020)。
文摘Soil microorganisms play pivotal roles in element biogeochemical cycling and ecological functions in wetland ecosystem,which may affect global climate change.Variations in biotic and abiotic factors are known to affect soil microbial diversity,community structure and the corresponding functions.However,the relative importance of these biotic and abiotic factors on wetland soil microbial diversity and community structure on the QinghaiTibet Plateau remains poorly understood.In this study,we explored soil bacterial and fungal diversity and composition of five wetlands under two vegetation types(herbs vs Hippophae thibetana)in Changdu area,Tibet,through Illumina high throughput sequencing analysis of 16S rRNA for bacteria and internal transcribed spacer(ITS)for fungi.Results showed that soil bacterial alpha diversity was higher in H.thibetana dominated wetlands and was significantly and positively correlated with soil pH.No difference was detected in the soil fungal alpha diversity among samples and between vegetation types.The dominant soil bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria,Actinobacteria,Acidobacteria,and Firmicutes.While Ascomycota,Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota were the dominant fungal phyla.Soil bacterial and fungal community structures were significantly distinct by vegetation types.In addition,redundancy analysis indicated that soil pH was the key factor shaping soil bacterial community structure.Nevertheless,soil p H showed no effect on fungal community.Instead,soil dissolved organic carbon was the major factor contributing to soil fungal community structure.This study emphasized that wetland soil microbial communities were distinct by vegetation types and the driving factors of microbial beta diversity between bacterial and fungal community were also different in wetlands in Changdu area.