Female chacma baboons form strong, equitable, and enduring social bonds
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Analyses of the pattern of associations, social interactions, coalitions, and aggression among chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) in the Okavango Delta of Botswana over a 16-year period indicate that adult females form close, equitable, supportive, and enduring social relationships. They show strong and stable preferences for close kin, particularly their own mothers and daughters. Females also form strong attachments to unrelated females who are close to their own age and who are likely to be paternal half-sisters. Although absolute rates of aggression among kin are as high as rates of aggression among nonkin, females are more tolerant of close relatives than they are of others with whom they have comparable amounts of contact. These findings complement previous work which indicates that the strength of social bonds enhances the fitness of females in this population and support findings about the structure and function of social bonds in other primate groups.
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Other social mammals form cooperative relationships between unrelated adults that can last over months or years.
“Recent studies show that, in addition to humans, other social mammals form cooperative relationships between unrelated adults, which can last over months or years (chimpanzees [7], baboons [8,9] and feral horses [10]).”
From Food sharing is linked to urinary oxytocin levels and bonding in related and unrelated wild chimpanzees (2014) · cites this paper as [9]
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- Authors
- Silk, J. B., Beehner, J. C., Bergman, T. J., Crockford, C., Engh, A. L., Moscovice, L. R., Wittig, R. M., Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Silk, Joan B.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
- Published
- 2010-06-03
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1733-1747
- ISSN
- 0340-5443 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-0762
- PMC
- PMC2952770
- OpenAlex
- W2158664216
- Cited by
- 230
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 21.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (9213586)
- National Geographic Society
- University of Pennsylvania
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (F32MH064232, R01MH062249)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- chacma baboon, kin selection, social tolerance, aggression, maternal investment, social alliances, primate social structure, Okavango Delta
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