Multimodal communication of adult, subadult, and infant plains zebras (Equus quagga)

Juveniles occupy a different social niche than adults, engaging in a smaller diversity of social contexts and perceiving greater social risks. Either or both of these factors may influence the form communication takes in immaturity and its developmental trajectory. We investigated the relative influence of these social forces on the development of multimodal communication in plains zebras (Equus quagga). Juveniles possessed smaller repertoires than adults, with lower combinatorial flexibility and greater stereotypy, particularly for signals used in submission. When interacting with adults, juveniles used a larger fraction of their repertoire, but with reduced combinatorial flexibility. The usage of a contextually flexible signal, “snapping”, also shifted across development, beginning as a stereotyped, submissive signal before diversifying into the full range of adult usage., Study species and subjects
 
We conducted our study on a population of ~2,000 wild plains zebras living in Ol Pejeta Nature Conservancy of Laikipia, Kenya (0°00 N, 36°56 E). This population experiences natural predation and is not provisioned. Our sample comprised 22 focal harems with an average harem size of 5 members (2-13 individuals). To supplement our sample size for the immature age class, we included additional data collected ad libitum from a subset of 5 of the 22 followed harems followed between July 9th and August 9th, 2019. All other methods were the same across all sample periods. This inclusion allowed us to double our sample of immature individuals (2019 sample = 10). We are able to individually identify zebras based on their unique stripes. All research was conducted with the permission of Ol Pejeta Nature Conservancy and the Kenyan Ministry of Wildlife (NACOSTI/P/21/11647), and was in compliance with the guidelines of the Princeton University Institutional Animal Care an..., , # Multimodal communication of adult, subadult, and infant plains zebras (Equus quagga)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c866t1ggk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c866t1ggk)

## Description of the data and file structure

Multimodal communication of adult, subadult, and infant plains zebras (*Equus quagga*)

This dataset comprises social interactions engaged in by adult, sub adult (>2 years old, pre-dispersal), and foal (<2 years old) wild plains zebras (*Equus quagga*). Data were extracted from videos collected during focal follows of 22 known focal harems between 2021 and 2022, and data collected ad libitum from a subset of 5 of the 22 followed harems followed between July 9th and August 9th, 2019. Behaviors were coded to define the full suite of visual, acoustic, tactile, and chemical signals that were produced. Data were used to construct co-occurrence networks of multimodal communication.

### Files and variables

#### File: Adult\_Juvenile20212022.xlsx

**Description of data an...