
==== Front
bioRxiv
BIORXIV
bioRxiv
2692-8205
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

10.1101/2024.08.20.608854
preprint
1
Article
Re-evaluating the relationship between female social bonds and infant survival in wild baboons
Creighton Maria J.A. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1337-1946

Lerch Brian A. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4894-6834

Lange Elizabeth C. http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6834-9207

Silk Joan B.
Tung Jenny http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0416-2958

Archie Elizabeth A. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1187-0998

Alberts Susan C. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1313-488X

20 8 2024
2024.08.20.608854https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2024.08.20.608854
nihpp-2024.08.20.608854.pdf
ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades studies have provided strong evidence that the robust links between the social environment, health, and survival found in humans also extend to non-human social animals. A number of these studies emphasize the early life origins of these effects. For example, in several social mammals, more socially engaged mothers have infants with higher rates of survival compared to less socially engaged mothers, suggesting that positive maternal social relationships causally improve offspring survival. Here we show that the relationship between infant survival and maternal sociality is confounded by previously underappreciated variation in female social behavior linked to changes in reproductive state and the presence of a live infant. Using data from a population of wild baboons living in the Amboseli basin of Kenya – a population where high levels of maternal sociality have previously been linked to improved infant survival – we find that infant- and reproductive state-dependent changes in female social behavior drive a statistically significant relationship between maternal sociality and infant survival. After accounting for these state-dependent changes in social behavior, maternal sociality is no longer positively associated with infant survival in this population. Our results emphasize the importance of considering multiple explanatory pathways—including third-variable effects—when studying the social determinants of health in natural populations.
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