Data from: Variable intergroup encounters: What drives neutral and intolerant encounters in blue monkeys?

In group-living animals, between-group relations are often revealed during intergroup encounters, which may be intolerant (competitive), affiliative (cooperative), or neutral. Our study investigated factors that predict different encounter types in blue monkeys, where intolerant encounters predominate but neutral encounters also occur. Using data from 9 groups monitored over 24 months in equatorial forest, we first examined whether the availability of fruit, a preferred and important food, predicted monthly encounter rates for individual groups. We then examined how fruit availability and time of day influenced the odds that individual encounters were intolerant vs. neutral. For a subset of encounters between study groups with well-known histories, we examined the effects of additional social and location factors, which included group size, the proportion of females with infants, the time elapsed since the opposing groups had split from each other in the past years, and the encounter's location on edge-centre axes for both groups. Finally, we examined how ecological and social factors predicted individual group behaviour (aggressive, fleeing, neutral) during encounters. The variables we examined included encounter location, group size, group size differential, time since the two groups split from each other, fruit availability, and time of day. These investigations required 3 data sets (one for each italicized item in this abstract, namely rates, encounters, and records of group behavior).