Social isolation: Animals that break away from the pack can influence evolution

Date:  July 17, 2018

Source:  Cell Press

For some animals -- such as beetles, ants, toads, and primates -- short-term social isolation can be just as vital as social interaction to development and long-term evolution. In a review published July 17 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, two evolutionary biologists describe approaches for testing how an animal's isolation might impact natural selection and evolution. This framework can help design more effective breeding, reintroduction, and conservation strategies.

Research on evolution typically focuses on the importance of social interactions, including parent-offspring bonding, competition for resources, and courtship and mating rituals. But Nathan Bailey at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and his colleague Allen Moore at the University of Georgia realized that isolation must then be an extreme condition worthy of equal attention.

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Some monkeys prone to isolation

December 19, 2017, University of Exeter

Some individual animals are prone to social isolation, new research suggests.

The study of rhesus macaques showed some of the monkeys remain socially isolated for much of their lives, suggesting their isolation is caused by a persistent trait or traits.

The researchers - from the universities of Exeter, Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania - believe the cause is a mixture of their genes and other factors such as age, sex and family size.

Social isolation is linked to reduced life expectancy in many species, including humans.

"Understanding social isolation is really important, and studying macaques might give us clues about human behaviour," said Dr Lauren Brent, from the University of Exeter.

"Isolation is the latest epidemic among humans, and research has suggested it is as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

"Given the benefits of social integration, we need to understand why some individual animals tend to be socially isolated."

The researchers measured integration by observing how much time macaques spent grooming others and being groomed - a key social behaviour for the species.

The factors that played a role in isolation were age, sex, social status, group size and how long a macaque had belonged to a social group.

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