The transgenerational transmission of sociality in wild baboons

This dataset presents data collected between 2014 and 2024 at the Tsaobis Baboon Project. The dataset is associated to the paper ‘The transgenerational transmission of sociality in wild baboons’. Please see the 'README' file for detailed information on the files included. Study summary: Because of the positive connection between sociality and fitness, understanding the factors affecting its transgenerational transmission may provide critical insights into the evolution of sociality in wild populations. Our hypotheses were that three maternal social features–a mother’s matriline size (i.e., her number of offspring in the group), her dominance rank, and her social centrality–would enhance three aspects of infant and juvenile wild chacma baboons’ (Papio ursinus) sociality–the inheritance of maternal networks, social centrality, and the association with partners of similar age and the same sex. We adopted a longitudinal approach, applying social network analysis to 10 years of data on three study troops, to test for the first time the independent effects of these maternal social features. Our results show that the inheritance of maternal networks was enhanced both by a high maternal dominance rank and social centrality. Juveniles’ social centrality was positively correlated with matriline size and a mother’s own social centrality. Finally, both large matriline size and high maternal social centrality increased immatures’ association with partners of similar age and the same sex. We suggest that the maternal phenotype plays an important role in shaping the offspring’s sociality: our results confirm the role of maternal rank on social inheritance in despotic societies but also highlight the greater importance of having siblings and a socially connected mother in enhancing all aspects of immatures’ sociality. Indirect social connections and early social bonding opportunities may strongly affect the formation of immatures’ social bonds throughout development, potentially influencing life-long fitness.