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Data from: Costs of social conflict: do injuries mirror patterns of aggression in blue monkeys?

Cords, Marina1; Arguelles, Natalia1

Published Sep 07, 2023 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8pk0p2ntq

Data files

Sep 07, 2023 version files 2.47 MB

Abstract

In wild animals, injuries often arise from intraspecific contests, and therefore may reveal challenges and selection pressures related to social conflict. We evaluated whether known aggressive patterns predicted injury patterns in wild blue monkeys, in which most injuries of known cause resulted from conspecifics. After describing injuries and their causes in 12 groups monitored over 13 years, we compared injury distributions across age-sex class and season. Adult males were much more likely, adult females about equally likely, and immatures much less likely to sustain injuries relative to random expectation. Among adult males, injuries were most common in the mating season. Using multivariate models, we examined how individual, social, and demographic factors predicted injury rates in adult females and immatures. Rates were higher for adult females versus all immatures, for individuals in smaller groups, and for those living in groups frequently exposed to novel adult males and with few immature members. Among older juvenile and adult females, these trends persisted; additionally, pregnant and lactating females were injured less often than others, but there was no evidence that dominance rank influenced injury rates. For juveniles, injury rates increased similarly with age in both sexes, providing only limited evidence that heightened aggression motivates natal dispersal by males. Most findings supported the hypothesis that aggression increases injury risk. Costs of within-group aggressive competition may manifest in ways other than injury, however, especially for females. We highlight the importance in comparative analyses of considering both within- and between-group aggression and demographic variables as influencing injury risk.