野生短尾猴的集群运动与协商决策研究

Collective movement is a behavioral process that allows a group to adapt to its habitat in many social animals. It benefits the animals in many different ways including feeding, defense against predators, and reproduction. However, because the interests and needs of different members of a group are not necessarily the same, collective decisions that allow the group to coordinate their activities become vital. Otherwise, group solidality will be weakend and the advantages associated with collective actions will diminish. Consensus decision is one of such mechanisms that allow all members of a social group to reach collective decisions, which, through communication, allow them to coordinate their group activities and enhance group solidality. It is one of the newest foci in the study of animal behavior. In this proposed project, we intend to use the Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan as our research subject to exam the interrelationship between its collective movements and social networks. Specifically, we propose to answer the following scientific questions through this project: 1) how a collective decision is initiated; 2) what are the social factors that affect the concensus decision making; 3) how leadership, consensus decision, and group cohesion are interrelated. Therefore, the objectives of this proposed project include elucidating the behavioral characteristics and evolutionary adaptation of concensus decision making in the Tibetan macaque. The results of our study will lead to new scientific findings for the protection and management of social animals. They are also expected to generate new insights into human social behavior and social coordination, which may also be beneficial to improving the efficiency of human orgnizations and societies.

集群运动（Collective movement）是许多动物对栖息环境的一种适应，可为动物带来诸如寻找食物、集体防御和生育繁殖等好处。然而群体成员的利益和需求往往不同，群体需要某种机制使每个个体都必须互相配合以保证群体团结在一起，否则群体的优势不复存在。协商决策（Consensus decision）是群体全部成员通过交换信息、参与集体决策，从而保持群体活动一致性的过程，是动物行为学研究中新课题。本项目以安徽黄山野生短尾猴鱼鳞坑A1群为研究对象，通过研究集群运动和个体关系，期望回答以下重要科学问题：（1）短尾猴群的决策发起类型；（2）个体影响力的社会因素；（3）个体影响力、协商决策和社群凝聚力的关系。本研究将阐明短尾猴协商决策的特征，揭示协商决策的行为机制和适应进化，为集群动物的保护和管理提供科学依据，同时，也为了解人类社会的群体行为和改善社会管理提供有益参考。

群居动物成功生存和繁殖的基础和前提是每个个体必须互相配合以确保群体的整体性和协调性，从而带来诸如共同觅食、集体防御和合作生育等好处。虽然已有一些研究表明个体的特征和关系起重要作用，但对这种群体协调的内在机制缺少研究。本项目通过对安徽黄山的野生短尾猴（Macaca thibetana）集群运动的发起类型、个体影响力和社会因素的研究，取得以下主要结果：（1）短尾猴集群运动的发起属于协商决策类型，成年个体均能成功发起集群运动；（2）集群运动的领导力与友好行为密切相关：成功发起频次与社会理毛时间（rs = 0.707, P = 0.010）、理毛付出时间（rs = 0.643, P = 0.024）与收益时间（rs = 0.587, P = 0.045）均呈正相关关系；（3）社会亲和力决定集群运动的成功：基于近距行为的特征向量中心度与决策成功度存在正相关关系（发起频次：rs = 0.704, P = 0.011，发起成功率：rs = 0.757, P = 0.004），基于架桥行为的中心度与决策成功度也具有正相关性（发起频次：rs = 0.952, P = 0.001，发起成功率：rs = 0.857, P = 0.003），为此提出集体决策的“亲和力-领导力”模型，即善于处理关系的个体，发起运动的领导力也越强；（4）发现了短尾猴集群运动参与的“数量法则”：在达到集群运动阈值之前，个体根据早期参与者的社会等级（雄性：rs = 0.800, P = 0.048；雌性：rs = 0.655, P = 0.035）或亲和力（rs = 0.614, P = 0.034）决定是否加入运动，一旦参与者的数量达到成年个体50%以上，其余成员全部参与集群运动。本研究不仅阐明了短尾猴集群运动决策类型和影响因素，也首次提出了集群运动决策的“亲和力-领导力”模型和“数量法则”，有助于揭示灵长类动物维持群体凝聚力的行为机制。同时，本研究中所发现短尾猴群体决策的“数量法则”与人类社会投票的“过半原则”类似，对理解人类社会的行为规则和社会管理具有重要的参考价值。