Effect of ecological factors on fine-scale patterns of social structure in African lions

1. Environmental variations can influence the extent to which individuals interact with other individuals by changing the value of grouping. It is well known that many species can form and disband groups, often in response to the distribution and abundance of resources. 2. While previous studies showed that resources influence the broad-scale structure of animal groups, knowledge gaps remain on whether they affect fine-scale patterns of association among individuals within groups. 3. We quantify association patterns in African lions while simultaneously monitoring the abundance and distribution of prey. We test how social and ecological factors, including individual trait (age, sex, reproductive state) similarity and prey availability (prey abundance, dispersion, herd size and body size) affect within-pride social structure in African lions. 4. We found that individual decisions about associates depended on resource availability with individuals associating equally across all members of...1. 环境变异可通过改变群聚的价值，影响个体间互动的程度。众所周知，诸多物种常依据资源的分布与丰度来组建和解散群体。 2. 尽管既往研究已证实资源可影响动物群体的宏观结构，但目前仍存在认知空白：尚不明确资源是否会作用于群体内部个体间的精细关联模式。 3. 本研究对非洲狮的关联模式进行量化分析，同时对猎物的丰度与分布开展监测。我们探究了社会与生态因子——包括个体性状（年龄（age）、性别（sex）、繁殖状态（reproductive state））的相似性，以及猎物可获得性（猎物丰度（prey abundance）、分布离散度（dispersion）、种群规模（herd size）与体型（body size））——对非洲狮狮群内部社会结构的影响。 4. 本研究发现，个体对社交伙伴的选择取决于资源可获得性，即个体会与群体内所有成员保持均等的互动频率。