A large-scale study in which he participated Dr. Amiel Ilani from Bar-Ilan University who examined data collected over 27 years and 74,000 social interactions, shedding light on the mechanisms of socialization, status and survival in the spotted hyena * The research was published in the journal Science and, as mentioned, got to stand in the center of the magazine's cover
In animals, social networks are critical to various aspects of their lives, including the transmission of information and pathogens as well as reproductive success and survival. Now it turns out that these social relationships may teach us a few things about relationships between people.
Dr. Amiel Ilani, a biologist at the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, combines behavioral ecology, network science and social science to investigate broad aspects of social behavior in nature. As part of his postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ilani developed, together with Dr. Errol Akçay, a model that proposes that social inheritance - in which the offspring inherit the social connections of their parents, either passively or through copying - may explain the structure of the social networks formed among many species.
The relationship between the offspring affects survival
In a study published yesterday (Thursday) in the journal Science The researchers show, for the first time on such a large scale, that their model correctly assumed that a process of social inheritance determines how the bonds between the offspring will be formed and maintained. Their research also sheds light on the important role that social class plays in determining the structure of hyena flocks and how it affects survival.
In order to test the model, Ilani and Akchey collaborated with Dr. Kay Holkamp from Michigan State University. Holkamp has spent the last 32 years tracking spotted hyenas in Kenya. The researchers took a deep look at the data collected by Holkamp, which records nearly 74,000 social interactions between these predators.
"The social ties in the hyena bands are indeed passed down by inheritance from generation to generation. The abundance of data on the spotted hyena collected by Kay Holkamp provides us with a golden opportunity to test the model we developed several years ago." says Dr. Ilani, the lead author of the study. "We found strong evidence that social bonds between offspring are similar to the social bonds of the mother. A mother who has a social bond with another hyena can create a connection between her offspring and that hyena and both, in turn, will form a social bond. Even after the bond between the mother and the offspring weakens significantly, the offspring will remain attached to the mother's friends."
"Class is extremely important," says Dr. Akchai, one of the authors of the study. "In spotted hyenas there is a matriarchal society. Those born to a low-class mother have fewer chances to survive and reproduce." The offspring of high-status individuals will face fewer constraints than lower-status offspring in choosing their social partners. The researchers found that offspring of mothers of high social status copied their relationships with higher accuracy than offspring of mothers of low social status.
The results of the study imply that social inheritance plays an important role in building the social networks of hypocrites. It has been found that in several species, social integration is associated with higher survival and reproductive success. The results of the present study strengthen the conclusions since they also indicate the connection between social inheritance and the survival of the offspring and the mother.
The research highlights how factors other than genetics lead to outcomes with significant evolutionary consequences, including reproductive success and survival. "It turns out that many things that we assume by default to be genetically determined, depend on environmental and social pressures," concludes Ilani.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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Hail to Dr. Ilani,
Amiel is the son of Giora Ilani who was a zoologist at the PA
And to his credit:
- Identification and description of the remaining population of the steppe deer (the Shitims),
- repeated identification of the cliff fox,
- Tracking and studying the tigers,
and on and on, until his untimely death,
Giora was a close friend and therefore I feel close to his son
And hence the need to respond - like this...
allowed! Connections are inherited, social inheritance. Not genetically inherited.
I expected more precision from you..