title: Social structure of collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu): does relatedness matter?
abstract: Relatedness is considered an important factor in shaping social structure as the association among kin might facilitate cooperation via inclusive fitness benefits. We addressed here the influence of relatedness on the social structure of a Neotropical ungulate, the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu). As peccaries are highly social and cooperative, live in stable cohesive herds and show certain degree of female philopatry and high mean relatedness within herds, we hypothesized that kin would be spatially closer and display more amicable and less agonistic interactions than non-kin. We recorded spatial association patterns and rates of interactions of two captive groups. Pairwise relatedness was calculated based on microsatellite data. As predicted, we found that kin were spatially closer than non-kin, which suggests that relatedness is a good predictor of spatial association in peccaries. However, relatedness did not predict the rates of social interactions. Although our results indirectly indicate some role of sex, age and familiarity, further studies are needed to clarify the factors that shape the rates of interactions in collared peccaries. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Neotropical Behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP 05508-030, Brazil; Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil. Electronic address: cibele.biondo@ufabc.edu.br.
authors.forename: Cibele
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biondo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP 05508-030, Brazil.
authors.forename: Patrícia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Izar
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cristina Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Miyaki
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP 05508-030, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vera S R
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Bussab
mesh_terms: D000378:Agonistic Behavior; D000818:Animals; D001188:Artiodactyla; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D013037:Spatial Behavior
keywords: Kinship; Microsatellite; Spatial association; Tayassuidae