Novel pathogen introduction triggers rapid evolution in animal social movement strategies.

ABSTRACT: Animal sociality emerges from individual decisions on how to balance the costs and benefits of being sociable. Novel pathogens introduced into wildlife populations should increase the costs of sociality, selecting against gregariousness. Using an individual-based model that captures essential features of pathogen transmission among social hosts, we show how novel pathogen introduction provokes the rapid evolutionary emergence and coexistence of distinct social movement strategies. These strategies differ in how they trade the benefits of social information against the risk of infection. Overall, pathogen-risk-adapted populations move more and have fewer associations with other individuals than their pathogen-risk-naive ancestors, reducing disease spread. Host evolution to be less social ca

SUBMITTER: Gupte PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10449382 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature