Costs and benefits of group living in primates: an energetic perspective.

ABSTRACT: Group size is a fundamental component of sociality, and has important consequences for an individual's fitness as well as the collective and cooperative behaviours of the group as a whole. This review focuses on how the costs and benefits of group living vary in female primates as a function of group size, with a particular emphasis on how competition within and between groups affects an individual's energetic balance. Because the repercussions of chronic energetic stress can lower an animal's fitness, identifying the predictors of energetic stress has important implications for understanding variation in survivorship and reproductive success within and between populations. Notably, we extend previous literature on this topic by discussing three physiological measures of energetic balance-

SUBMITTER: Markham AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5498300 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature