Collective Movements And Follow Decision Making In Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana)

Many animals have a social life in the nature.They work together to maintain the structure and function of the group.The social life has great significance for animals to adapt to the natural environment,improve their ability to survive,and ensure the reproduction of races.At the same time,animals' behavior is also limited by others.They cannot enjoy food alone and there is competition for resources.These contradictions can weaken the cohesion of groups and cause group dissolution.In the long-term evolution,Collective movement is a way for animals to maintain group cohesion.Group members have the same movement direction and uniform movement time.When an individual issues a proposal for a new direction of movement,other individuals decide to follow or not to follow.At present,researches on collective movement mostly focus on the analysis of leadership and its types,but lack of in-depth research on the following and its influencing factors.In this study,we observed a group of wild Tibetan macaques(Macaca thibetana)at Mt.Huangshan of Anhui province from August 2016 to May 2017.We used All occurrences recording,Focal animal sampling and Ad libitum sampling to record the data of collective movement and other social behavior.We expected to solve the following issues:(1)the correlation between the natural attributes of the macaque monkey and the follow-up decision;(2)the influence of the friendly relationship between the macaque monkeys on the follow-up decision.The results are as follows:1.This study divided Tibetan macaques into six age classes: infant,juvenile,adolescent,young adult,middle-aged and old.There was no correlation between follower's age group and collective movement success rate(Pearson correlation test,N=29,r=0.068,P=0.728).2.There was no significant difference in the success rate of collective movement between male or female(Independent samples t test,t=-0.375,df=24,P=0.47).3.The social rank of Tibetan macaques are determined by the David's score.There was a positive correlation between the social ranks of the Tibetan macaques andthe success rate of the collective movement in both female and male individuals(male:Pearson correlation test,N=11,r=0.735,P=0.01;female: Pearson correlation test,N=15,r=0.628,P=0.012).4.There was a positive correlation between the order of followers and the centrality of the eigenvectors(Pearson correlation test,N=26,r=0.781,P=0.000).5.There was a positive correlation between the coefficient of relatedness and success rate of collective movement(Pearson correlation test,N=347,r=0.392,P=0.000).6.There was no correlation between the number of potential followers and the successful decision-making time of the collective movement(Pearson correlation test,N=144,r=0.036,P=0.669).The results of this study support the individual's selective imitative rule of participation in collective movement.The followers will have the choice to decide whether to join in the collective movement or not.For example,whether the participants in the collective movement have followers' partners or individuals who are related to the followers.In addition,the influence of the characteristics of followers on the success rate of collective movement is analyzed.It shows that the decision-makers of the collective movement are not only initiator,followers are also decision-makers.