Data from: Acquisition and functional consequences of social knowledge in macaques

To manoeuvre in complex societies, it is beneficial to acquire knowledge about the social relationships existing among group mates, so as to better predict their behaviour. Although such knowledge has been firmly established in a variety of animal taxa, how animals acquire such knowledge, as well as its functional significance, remain poorly understood. In order to understand how primates acquire and use their social knowledge, we studied kin-biased redirected aggression in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) relying on a large database of over 15,000 aggressive episodes. Confirming previous research, macaques redirected aggression preferentially to the kin of their aggressor. An analysis that controlled for the rate of affiliation between aggressors and targets of redirection showed that macaques identified the relatives of group mates on the basis of the frequency of their ongoing associations. In contrast, having observed group mates interact with their mother as infants did not increase the monkeys' success in correctly identifying kin relationships among third parties. Inter-individual variation in the successful identification of the kin of aggressors and in redirecting aggression accordingly translated into differences in the amount of aggression received, highlighting a selective advantage for those individuals that were better able to acquire and use social knowledge.

在复杂社会群体中开展活动时，掌握群体内同伴间的社会关系知识，有助于更精准地预测其行为表现。尽管这类社会关系知识已在多种动物类群中得到验证，但动物如何获取此类知识及其功能意义，目前仍未得到充分阐释。为探究灵长类动物如何获取并运用社会知识，我们依托涵盖15000余起攻击事件的大型数据库，针对日本猴（Macaca fuscata）的亲缘偏向转向攻击（kin-biased redirected aggression）开展了研究。本研究验证了此前的研究结论：日本猴会优先将攻击行为转向攻击者的亲缘个体。通过控制攻击者与转向攻击目标间的亲和互动频率进行分析后发现，日本猴会依据当前同伴间的关联频次来识别同伴的亲属。与之相反，幼年时期观察同伴与其母亲互动的经历，并未提升猴子正确识别第三方亲属关系的能力。个体间在识别攻击者亲属的成功率以及相应的转向攻击行为上存在差异，这种差异最终反映在其所承受的攻击量不同，凸显出那些更擅长获取和运用社会知识的个体所具备的选择优势。