Social interactions change with season and age in Northern Bald Ibis
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Social interactions change with season and age in Northern Bald Ibis Verena Puehringer‑Sturmayr1,2 · Tanja Stiefel1 · Kurt Kotrschal1,2 · Sonia Kleindorfer1,2,3 · Didone Frigerio1,2 Received: 14 January 2020 / Revised: 2 September 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Understanding the association between an individual’s position within a social network and its sex and age across seasons can be useful information for conservation management. For example, identifying the social position of females within a group can provide insights into reproductive potential, while the position of juveniles may be related to survival and hence recruitment potential. In the present study, we used social network analysis to investigate the effects of season, sex, age and reproductive partner on social interactions in the endangered Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita). Via focal sampling we recorded the social behaviour of 39 individually marked, free-flying birds for 4 months over two seasons (autumn, winter). We observed the occurrence of affiliative and agonistic interactions and estimated proximity between colony members. We found that (1) individuals were in proximity with more colony members in winter than in autumn, and affiliative interactions occurred more often in winter, (2) older individuals occupied more central positions in the proximity network irrespective of sex, (3) males engaged more than females in agonistic interactions, whereas females received more affiliative interactions than males irrespective of age, and (4) most affiliative interactions occurred between former or potentially prospective reproductive partners. Our findings suggest that social relationships could modulate inter-individual distance and there may be sex-related differences in the investment into pair bond maintenance. Overall the findings of sex- and age-related differences in behaviour and social position contribute to understanding factors associated with breeding success and mortality risk in an endangered bird species. Keywords Affiliative interactions · Agonistic interactions · Juvenile recruitment · Colonial · Geronticus eremita · Proximity · Social network · Conservation · Endangered species
Communicated by S. Bouwhuis. Verena Puehringer-Sturmayr and Tanja Stiefel share first authorship. Verena Puehringer-Sturmayr and Tanja Stiefel contributed equally to the manuscript. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01824-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 1
Tanja Stiefel [email protected]
Core Facility Konrad Lorenz Research Center for Behaviour and Cognition, University of Vienna, Fischerau 11, 4645 Grünau im Almtal, Austria
2
Kurt Kotrschal [email protected]
Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
3
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide 5001, Australia
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